Global Warming as a Social

Global Warming as a Social Problem

The objective of this work is to provide an outline of a research paper on the rise and decline of global warming as a social problem with a clearly stated thesis. The focus will be on the way the public opinion responds to the prospect of global warming and its potential importance that revolve around politics and new technologies.

Media producers and consumers are involved in activities that form cultural bias or belief and that shape the belief of the public relating to climate warming.

Global warming is affecting the lives of each individual on the face of the planet whether they realize it or not and will continue to do so for many years to come. Many changes are taking place upon the earth and climate change has affected the world so greatly that many of the hunters in the artic report there is not enough snow to even build igloos while hunting. (Dunn-Brown 15 Apr 2007)Dunn-Brown reports that the Intuits live in northern Canada and the Artic and are hunters upon the ice however, these indigenous people of the Artic have been losing their hunters on the ice due to melting. The report states that: "Millennia of learning to read the winds, clouds and starts and find the best hunting are lost...a lot of the elders will no longer go out on the sea ice because their knowledge will not work anymore." (Dunn-Brown, 2007) This information may come as a shock to individuals who do conduct their own research and who rely on the offerings of public media sources.

Brief Review of the Literature

In the work of Bord, Fisher and O'Connor entitled: "Is Accurate Understanding of Global Warming Necessary to Promote Willingness to Sacrifice?" It is stated that: "Inferences about the meaning of environmental poll data range from exuberant celebration of a green revolution or 'post material society to more measured judgment that acknowledge heightened concern and increase support for environmental cleanup initiatives to down right pessimism about the degree of public commitment." (nd) This study stated findings that global warming is not "a salient issue..." As are "job difficulties, violent crime and hazardous chemical wastes." (Bord, Fisher and O'Connor, nd) the work of Sheldon Ungar entitled: "The Rise and (Relative) Decline of Global Warming as a Social Problem" examines changes in the receptiveness of the audience of media claims regarding global warming and finds that the claims of scientist has failed to gain the attention of the public except in cases of events that bring about a threat or in other words: "environmental claims are most likely to be honored -- and accelerate demands in the political arena -- when they piggyback on dramatic real-world events." (1992) Additionally, "social scares hold potential importance for prospective social problems that revolve around new technologies." (Ungar, 1992) Another work of Ungar's work entitled: "Moral Panic vs. The Risk Society: The Implication of the Changing Sites of Social Anxiety" makes a comparison of moral panic "with the potential of political catastrophes of a risk society." (2001) in this work Ungar looks at how the changing conceptions and claims of media affects society and how accidents within the risk society "expose hidden institutional violations that redound into 'hot potatoes'. " (Ungar, 2001) in the work of Jerry Williams entitled: "Knowledge, Consequences, and Experience: The Social Construction of Environmental Problems" explored are the "realist and constructionist approaches to environmental-social problems." (1998) Neither view in its current form is adequate as the actual reality is one that "moves beyond relativism and definitional constructionism" recognizing that the natural world is not dependent upon the constructions of humans. (Williams, 1998) the work of Carvalho and Burgess (2005) entitled: "Cultural Circuits of Climate Change in the U.K. Broadsheet Newspapers 1985-2003" provides an argument supporting "a cultural perspective to be brought to bear on studies of climate change risk perception." This article holds that those who produce and consume media texts "are jointly engaged in dynamic, meaning-making activities that are context-specific and that change over time." (Carvalho and Burgess, 2005) Richard a. Kerr in the work entitled: "Global Warming: Rising Global Temperature, Rising Uncertainty" states that dramatic headlines during January entitled: "Scientists Issue Dire Prediction on Warming: Faster Climate Shift Portends Global Calamity This Century" according to the Washington Post. (2001) Kerr states that: "In this politically charged atmosphere of climate forecasting, uncertainties are often seized upon as excuses for inaction. The work of Andrew Dobson entitled: "A Politics of Global Warming" the Social-Science Resource" sates that practically everyone has now been convinced that global warming is a real threat and that human beings are the cause leaving the question which asks: "What are we going to do about it?" (Dobson, 2007) According to Dobson: "The technology box contains many tools: hybrid cars, solar panels, nuclear power, low energy light bulbs...." (Dobson, 2007) it is related in Dobson's work that "people are guided by other motives and values than the traditional economic rationality of the consumer...they feel a moral obligation to sort waste in order to contribute to a better environment." (Dobson, 2007) the politics that global climate change requires cannot be provisioned through technology, changes in lifestyles or green taxes. Dobson suggests that sound social science should be present in the global climate change debates, which will make the question of "what are we going to do about it" look very different. (Dobson, 2007; paraphrased)