Americans Don’t Understand How Bad Climate Change Is or What They Can Do
Part of the blame lies in lack of resources for understanding the impact properly.  This article is a good example - it includes an infographic (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;img.huffingtonpost.com&#x2F;asset&#x2F;5c1a989924000019008c8835.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;img.huffingtonpost.com&#x2F;asset&#x2F;5c1a989924000019008c883...</a>) listing vague global effects such as &quot;Heavy rainfall up 7%&quot; or &quot;sea level rise 50cm&quot; or &quot;Crop yields in tropical regions down x%&quot;. That&#x27;s <i>not</i> anything that&#x27;s going to get a common person to think &quot;oh, that&#x27;s absolutely horrible&quot; - 7% of heavy rainfall or 50cm sea level rise doesn&#x27;t sound scary, and they don&#x27;t care about crop yields in tropical regions if they don&#x27;t live there. What <i>is</i> needed is publicly available information on how climate change is going to affect <i>them</i> - not global averages, but local impact. If you just say &quot;oh, it&#x27;s going to be vaguely really bad after a long time on the other side of the globe&quot; then people reasonably won&#x27;t choose to make any sacrifices to prevent that.<p>Let&#x27;s assume the currently likely scenario of 4 degree C average warming by 2100. The article quotes Ed Maibach, director of the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, that he finds it &quot;to be nothing short of terrifying&quot;.  Okay, let&#x27;s elaborate and present the actually terrifying predictions to the people - where can I get them? Given that 4 degree global warming scenario, what&#x27;s the predicted local warming in Texas? Given the global sea level rise, which parts of Florida are going to flood by 2100? Given the predicted changes in rainfall, what is going to be the effect on crop yields in Midwest? 2100 is too far away to be meaningful for most people, what is the realistic bad case scenario by 2050 or 2070, what are the mid-term impacts?<p>Don&#x27;t just say &quot;it&#x27;s terrifying&quot; but actually terrify people with data! And not just any data, but data that&#x27;s relevant to them personally; a Midwest farmer doesn&#x27;t care about crop yields falling in tropical regions (or might even prefer it, less competition=higher prices) and vice versa - to meaningfully convince a person living in Florida you need data about how Florida is going to be affected; to convince a person living in London, you need data about the expected impact on London. Is there such data available?