Module 5 Short Paper
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Uploaded by tylerzigmond
Natural and Human Hazards—
Managing Public Dialogue and
Overcoming Biases
Tyler Zigmond
Sci-350: Leadership and Ethics in Geoscience
Southern New Hampshire University
December 3rd, 2023
For this assignment, I decided to go with a an argument about carbon emissions and the
effect that humanity has had on climate change. This has been an argument since the late
nineteenth century when Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius suggested that the emissions from
the recent boom in industrial products and production could cause the Earth to heat up.
When the topic is discussed, there is very little debate on if the Earth has gotten hotten in
the last hundred and fifty years. When looking at the numbers, you can see that there has been an
increase. The debate comes at what has truely caused this. The sides of the debate are:
Greenhouse gases have increased due to humans and the industrial revolution and that the global
temperature rising is just a natural progression of the Earth’s processes. A poll ran by NASA
shows that the majority of active publishing climate scientists, around 97%, agree that humans
are the cause of the changes.
The risk that this issue poses might just seem like a long term risk, but it is showing in the
world already. We see that almost 13% of arctic sea ice melts every decade, that dead zones
appear in areas of the Gulf of Mexico, and that natural disaster rates have increased in certain
parts of the world. When you look at how all of these are presented to the general public, you can
see that the media and public opinion have effects even on the scientist and voicing their
opinions.
This debate has far crossed the line of just being scientific in nature, and has been infused
with political bias. There is the mainstream idea that greenhouse gas emissions increasing since
the Industrial Revolution are the main cause for the global warming effect. There has been a fear
among scientists whose views slightly differ from the mainstream that they are going to be
shunned and attacked. A climatologist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Claire
Parkinson, claims that scientists whose views differ from the mainstream fear they will be
grossly represented in the press and accused of being bought off by “Big Oil”. This causes them
to not voice their opinions, which is a shame, as this lessons the debate and harms the accuracy
of the topic.
In the public, these political biases are existing at large right now. The bias that all
conservatives dont believe in climate change, and all liberals do believe in it is a common
perception in some areas. Other than the bias decided politically, there is an idea that religious
individials do not believe in global warming as well.
When bias like this exists, it immediately sets a roadblock in the way or ethical debates
and research. It hinders conversation, stops people from exploring further theories, and also stops
individuals from expressing any finding in the future at risk of being cancelled. For scientists, the
greater good should overcome anything else when it comes to delivering or holding information.
While there shouldnt be fear for researchers in the first place, they need to ignore the possible
consequences in order to stick to what is right. The information should not be one dispersed in
order to fear-monger or to follow the needs of a financial sponsor. Information should be
supplied in a completely educational manor in order for the public to make the most well
informed decision for themselves.
Schmidt, C. W. (2010). A closer look at climate change skepticism.
Environmental
Health Perspectives
,
118
(12). https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.118-a536
NASA. (2004).
Do scientists agree on climate change? – climate change: Vital signs of the
planet
. NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/17/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/
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