How can so many people be so ignorant of a majority of the facts about global warming?

Question

How can our educational system have failed so terribly at bring people up with the ability to learn facts about important subjects to them? People claim to be experts on global warming but when I talk to them about the effects of power generators on the ionosphere they seem clueless as to what im talking about and how it could possibly effect global warming. This stuff isnt exactly rocket science its just basic understanding of physics and basic electricty something I find the average person to be clueless about again. You should at least have a clue as to how the TV your watching every day or microwave you use to cook food with works imo.

I think playing games is fine as long as your not going overboard with it and what is overboard depends on who it is thats playing I guess. But you would think that people would want to try not to excape reality so much that they are no longer living in the "real" world?

Maybe I need to rephraze my question to what can the average person who knows about global warming do to help educate the rest that are clueless?

Im all for living life the best you can before you die. But to me that means learning as much as I can in a meaningful way and making sure I share that info I learn before I croke.

I believe we are already a stuck in between a rock and a hard place. We must learn to move rocks now or else we'll become burried in them. There are so many things that need to get done to save mother earth as we know her. And this starts with education so plz tell a friend about global warming and educate them on what you know and look for education from others on the subject. Along with other subjects that effect you. Like the wars we fight and the hunger we take part in cause'n.

Yeah the poles shift about once every 400,000 years if I got that right... The sun shifts its every 11 years and its last shift didnt go so well... Possibly caused by our EM fields on earth we just dont know. At any rate its probably not a good thing.

muzic_all to me you are part of the enemy when it comes to education about global warming... You say that cutting our electrical power generation will have no effect on global warming and that leads me to think that you have no understanding of the most basic theory in science cause and effect. Thx for your reply but I really hope you learn a lil more about science and life before buying into second hand information.

There is still something we can do about it even if it is just mostly us getting closer to the sun...

Answer 1

i agree its january and its 70 degrees in new jersey.

Answer 2

Perhpas the answer you weren't looking for but.............

global warming is a natural climate process that has been undergoing throught history, if you claim to be an educated person with basic undestanding of sciences... then understand this..... The whole eart was tropical in the very very beggining, a hude metoroid hit earth which called the ice age, the reason why everything froze was because the atmosphere was clogged and trashed with ash and gasses which blaocked the sun - which didn't let any heat - which lead to the freezing of eart.... Over time, the atmosphere started to clear out and the earth was slowly coming back to it's original form..... which is warm climate.... right now... global warming is just continuing...... nature will manage the balance as it always has..... so.....

there is really nothing anybody can do about it, using less electricity and not driving at all, and living like during the stone age will not help stop glabal warming...... People just need to adapt to the changing climate and develop better plans for special house constrction, specila water reservoirs, special energy conservation.... but unfortunatly every government steals the majority of the money form the poeple and "doesn't have" any funds to set these things up. Sooooo ........ instead of convincine people using less stuff , people just need to create new idea of how we can overcome this global warming

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, im the enemy? HA, you are way too biased, so am I.....but oh well,. In my opinion, global warming is a natural process, impossible to stop... maybe in your opinion by reducing elecricity use you will slow down global warming, but you wont stop it.... so the only solution is to find a solution on how we can live with it and how everything can conitinue functioning... becuase i personally don't want to sacrifice my opportunity to use electricity or drive and stuff because it's something i want to do, it falls in my career, it fall is my life style, i can't live without that , i need to build my own future too,
but w/e ...... that's my opinion, i will be one of those who will keep living the regular way, that's my right

Answer 3

There is not complete understanding on this subject. Competing theories yes. Conclusion no. I would say there are some views on global warming that are "logically correct" in that a majority would agree they must play into the question.
No it is not necessary that everyone understand how things work to be able to use them. What I learned years ago is that the world is made up of people with different talents. Some have a need to know. They are called scientists and engineers. Others do not care. They have different talents.
PS: I am an engineer.

Answer 4

well, i think that the education system is too deceiving not to discuss about world problems. I guess people are just too into the fact that the new tv show came out, or beyonces cd is on sale, or that they cant get a boyfriend. Basically, the world revolves around emotion while little do they know that the human race will cease to exist. Everyone just wants to live the best that they could before they're dead.

Answer 5

For many reasons, people can only absorb so much information in their lives. Besides an obvious limit on brain power (e.g. memory and concentration reserves), a major reason for people not absorbing the kind of information you mention is the value (or lack of it) that society places on various aspects of a person's education. For instance, I am led to understand that people in some countries to our east, when choosing a math or science emphasis in their education, are given almost purely math and science classes (at the expense of liberal arts classes). (That said, I have mostly a science background but value my liberal arts courses too.)

I'm not sure what you consider 'facts' about global warming. Yes, global temperatures are rising. Yes, cumulative CO2 levels are increasing and lead to a greenhouse effect. Beyond that it seems everything gets complicated--data becomes incomplete (e.g. climate records), stable models are difficult (computer simulations meet chaos theory), more and more variables enter the picture, etc... I was just thinking today (one of the warmest days on record for the northeastern US in January), if power consumption creates greenhouse gases and we warm the earth, won't that reduce the need for power consumption (in heating our offices and homes, for example), and won't this have an offsetting effect? It might not be much, but it is one more of many things to consider.

I read a NOAA site's assessment of global warming. It is probably written too technically for a layperson to have the resources (or patience) to digest. Science, research, knowledge, etc... are all very well and good, but we need responsible people in these fields to make the effort to translate information from science to a lay audience.

A microwave oven is NOT a simple device (that and fluorescent lighting are two of the most complex (non chip-based) devices in a home (imo))--as a rhetorical question, can YOU clearly explain how these devices work without pausing or doing research yourself? Can you answer questions a layperson might have after you've explained them? I'd also be interested in what you mean by a power generator having an effect on the ionosphere. Do you mean the entropy increase from power generation? Do you mean the increase in CO2 levels from common methods of power generation? Ozone or some other by-product from electrical generators? Maybe this is a chance for you to help others, without science backgrounds, to understand these concepts.

I read your question and I see frustration. I also feel frustrated about global warming--not so much that people don't have a grasp of the technical aspects, but that there seems to be a real leadership vacuum in this area. A leader, for instance, who can explain to a layperson what's really going on. A leader without some kind of agenda of personal or party self-interest. Roosevelt had his parks, Kennedy had his space program; these were men of VISION, forward thinkers. We need people like this to tackle the question of global warming, if not in the oval office, then SOMEWHERE.

Answer 6

The earths orbit isn't a perfect circle. We get closer and farther away from the sun (not only during the one year cycle, but also a total average distance change on 22000 and 10000 year cycles.)

They didn't have cars or factories during the last ice age.

Answer 7

A lot of people just don't care about future generations. So many people are all about themselves & the present-- without caring if the world will fall apart in 100 years

Answer 8

Easily,if it dosen't affect us at the moment humans don't generally care.Did you know we are just finding out about the plants and warmth that was once on antartica.Did you know about the poles shift normaly every god knows how many hunders of thousands of millions of years?

Answer 9

absolutely no clue why people are so ignorant. did u hear that an iceberg in the pacific the size of illinois just broke off and descended into the water?
I hope people realize this soon, otherwise everyone will be in bad circumstances

Answer 10

so whats your point ppl are to busy playing video games to worry about how they work daaaa