Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:01:31.234Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - Public Perception

from Section V - Social Ramifications of Climate Intervention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2022

Wake Smith
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Sweeping global climate interventions would be nearly impossible to implement without extensive public support. Surveys show an increasing and widespread global consensus that warming is real and constitutes a grave threat. The scientific community is virtually unanimous on these points, though this is poorly understood by the American public, which remains an outlier among developed nations in its degree of continuing climate confusion. Much of American climate exceptionalism derives from a well-funded domestic climate denial industry that has recycled tactics from the tobacco wars of the 1960s to preserve the appearance of scientific controversy where none exists. Despite that, an understanding of the gravity of the situation continues to coalesce. Conversely, knowledge about prospective climate interventions is exceptionally low. The primary exception is the somewhat misguided notion that planting trees can serve as a fully countervailing offset for carbon emissions. Another American oddity is the degree of stock placed in “chemtrailing” conspiracies. SAI is little understood among the general public but is met with strongly negative reactions when described, so much so that there is evidence of a “reverse moral hazard” effect whereby survey participants are more likely to favor strong mitigation if the alternative seems to be SAI.

Type
Chapter
Information
Pandora's Toolbox
The Hopes and Hazards of Climate Intervention
, pp. 296 - 312
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Public Perception
  • Wake Smith, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Pandora's Toolbox
  • Online publication: 24 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008877.019
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Public Perception
  • Wake Smith, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Pandora's Toolbox
  • Online publication: 24 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008877.019
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Public Perception
  • Wake Smith, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Pandora's Toolbox
  • Online publication: 24 February 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009008877.019
Available formats
×