Duct tape, plastic sheeting and global warming?

Question

Why was it so easy for a government to convince people that buying duct tape and plastic sheeting was a good idea to protect themselves against a nerve agent or anthrax attack, yet it’s so hard to convince people of an actual threat like global warming?

martone83, plastic and duct tape is a metaphor. It means the response by a group of people to a false or non-existent threat or situation created in order get a desired emotional response. It's a type of propaganda.
Something like "I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators and left the children to die on the cold floor. It was horrifying." -- Nayirah, Kuwaiti Citizen, testifying before Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Oct. 10, 1990. A very sad story but false.
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html

Answer 1

People wanted to believe they could protect themselves against a nerve agent attack.

People don't want to believe that global warming is a threat.

If I've learned one thing from my time on Y!A, it's that people are very good at finding ways to believe what they want to believe.

Answer 2

I admit that i'm personally not 100% convinced that humans are actually causing this recent rise in global temp. However I often think of it as like being stranded out at sea in an open lifeboat; there is a bit of water slopping around in the bottom of the boat and you can either ignore it and hope it wont get worse and sink the boat, or you can bail it out and hope no more comes in.

The population of the western, developed world wont do enough to reduce the threat of global warming because it wont seriously affect them; people can be moved, food can be bought and homes can be re-built. The third world however will suffer instead.

Maybe the US government, if they get around to deciding to get proactive on the subject, should emphesise how massive climate change will cause mass unemployment, economic collapse, wars and mass migration. The price in $$ may encourage the people to start to act..... The media are being a hell of a lot more restrained than during the anthrax 'threat' but then again, the US government are not trying to declare war on any polluting nations (yet).

Answer 3

Yes. Do you still have yours? I don't. Do you have any idea how many household uses there are for plastic sheets and duct tape? Shoot, you could build a tent to keep the rain out if you were homeless. It's not like they said what ready.gov is saying now. Go see it sometime, scoffer.

Answer 4

When it comes to this issue, we are our own worst enemy. Most people can not look in a mirror and see them selves as they truly are... and see a need to change anything.

The real issue is what we consume, why, where it comes from and what we do with it when we don't want it anymore or it's used up and transformed into something else.

There are alternatives to everything we now consume. In some cases the alternatives are inferior, but in many other cases the alternatives are equal to or better than the current norm.

As I read some of the posts here, reality can get pretty twisted; it's a conspiracy theory to steal from us and make someone else rich, you can't tell me what to do FU, If we allow ourselves to believe the sky will fall the sky will fall... Gee thirty years ago, they said we were causing a new ice age, now they say we are causing warming, so now I won't believe anybody about anything... how sad.

The analogy about bailing water from the boat is spot on.

To say we have no effect on our environment is silly. But to know we have a negative effect, and have solutions to fix a problem, and not take action is moronic!

People are so removed from the proccesses that support our modern lives they are ignorant to the effects it has along the way. In many cases a small change in a proccess makes a huge difference that the end users can not detect. So why wouldn't we make that change? Because it had a so called liberal or conservative orign? Have we become that petty and polarized?

There is solid middle ground to be found on many of these issues, we are all in this together, we all need to have input and be able to meet at least half way.

I can only speak for myself when I say I am in this battle because I care just as much about the seventh generation of my oppents as I do for my own. The changes we need to make to over come this problem should not grind anyone or any group of people into the ground.

United we must stand, or divided we will surely fall...

Let's get out of this place and move forward!

AHO!

Answer 5

It is very easy for the government to convince people about AGW. You have a much larger crowd rushing out to buy a Pirus and condoning people that don't believe global warming, than the number of people that rushed out to buy plastic sheeting and duct tape. Your point serves against your argument. Just because it is the Democrats scaring us with this smoke show instead of the Republican people buy off that it is not government. The Government and the Press have convinced many, many people that global warming is man made and you all accept it like many people did for duct tape and plastic sheeting. You have accepted a silly thing designed to invoke emotion just as the duct tape and plastic sheet people did. You are just as gullible as they are.

Answer 6

Very few people actually bought Duct tape and plastic sheeting, probably about the same amount who take global warming serious. People are too busy trying to live their lives than to save the world. The Duct tape thing at least was an actual solution, not just an accusation of our whole society.

Answer 7

Maybe they aren't using the right kind of propaganda? Maybe if they wrapped the flag around the issue, or showed more Mom's baking apple pie to hep get the point across.

But your premises is wrong. Far more buy into the global warming scam then bought plastic and duct tape.

But thanks for showing that "global warming" is a political issue and not a scientific issue. The gvmt never has to convince people to what the speed of light is, as this can be scientifically determined.

Answer 8

Gwens - Why even try to answer your questions? You aren't an objective thinker like you try to claim to be. You and Dana are so high on yourselves you can't even see past the noses you both have stuck into the air.

BTW: I love Duct Tape, since my father worked as a Machinist for 3M for over thirty years.

Answer 9

because when people buy duct tape, they see only a small roll of tape, not the billion pounds of raw material that is use to make hundreds of tape in a single batch in the factory. Not recycling a soda can for global warming is basically the same reason not paying the salvation army bucket for orphaned kids in Nigeria.

Answer 10

First, the government was much more trustworthy years ago. This alone was enough for many to give them the benefit of the doubt. Second, the percentage, of educated people in our society, is greater today than 50 years ago. Third, we also have the internet, which lets us investigate these claims for ourselves. We are not forced to swallow, what the local media source feeds us. This is why the government and propagandist have problems getting people to believe them. You seem to have swallowed it hook, line and sinker, though. Let me ask you something. Do you believe it because you feel that it is true or do you believe it, because you have looked into it for yourself and have seen the concrete evidence which undeniably connects man and global warming?