Response #4

Reading Dryzek's The Politics of the Earth really sparked my curiosity about the media. I was so confused as to why experts (scientists) are not trusted in the claims that they make. The main scientific experts who are conducting these experiments and giving the white house advice are obviously the best scientists in the country and have been trained extensively to conduct reliable studies that uncover the truth of an hypothesis. Even I, a student of science of only three years can distinguish concrete scientific studies from others. With this in mind I am trying to determine why the american public has so much trouble believing these scientific experts (people who have dedicated their entire lives to discovering the truth of climate change). I realize that there is another group of people who are dedicated to hiding the truth of climate change and their disagreement causes doubt in the minds of the general public. It truly terrifies me that the knowledge distributed by the media can not be trusted. This is so terrifying because the general pubic does not question what is said to them by a "trusted" source. To me this is one of the main reasons why change is so difficult. There is not any way to make your voice heard on this issue without there being a debate or questioning, even if you graduated from M.I.T. with a PhD in geology. How this can be changed is beyond me. Some ideas I have are emphasizing science in education so there is a better understanding of its validity, having sources reviewed by the government to ensure reliability (of course this runs the risk of a particular administration altering truth), or punishing those who claim truth to national level publications when they have no real basis for it.

Although, even if climate change was a cold hard fact that the entire world agreed on, would change happen? Considering the heart of America is the economy, would people be able to sacrifice growth for the future of people on earth? I sincerely question this and honestly do doubt that people would change. However, I am going to continue to try to believe that things can change and having truthful media is a good place to start.