Is hitting them with rocks outta the question?

Even as the world's leaders clash heads negotiate in Copenhagen this week over what to do about carbon emissions to reduce anthropogenic forcing of climate change, my Human Ecology (Biol 110) student Nicole Walger ponders one option to wake up the world (esp. its leaders) to the challenge:



I thought this was a cute way of showing the major dilemma with climate change: changing people’s minds.

I think as long as there are scientific professionals that can show conflicting evidence of global warming some citizens will continue to be hesitant to accept the possibility of human responsibility for global warming.

Maybe the economy is a better angle to change people’s behaviors? Hybrid cars are cheaper to fill up, and Astroturf lawns will cut down on water bills and landscaping, you can get PG&E to cut you a check every month if you get solar panels. If these “green” alternatives are marketed as “thrifty” alternatives maybe there will be a greater change. People seem more concerned with their personal financial situation then global warming these days, so why not capitalize on that?

The “green” movement should stop speaking to people’s sense of planetary responsibility or polluter’s guilt and try to appeal to their penny-pinching ways.  

(And thank you, Nicole, for pointing me to this ecologically minded comic strip too!)