Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific
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July 11, 2008
Garnaut report - taking the public pulse on climate change
I was watching an episode of Boston Legal earlier this week - while the show's antihero, Denny Crane never fails to surprise me with his antics, watching him use a toy-gun to paint-ball an environmentalist took the cake. But it was the slippery arguments on green politics by one of his side-kick attorneys in court that got me thinking about topics closer to home.
Last week a draft of the Garnaut report was released in Australia. Based on an independent study by Professor Ross Garnaut, the review examines the impact of climate change on the Australian economy and provides a forum for public debate. Here's a view of how Australian Internet users are thinking about climate change, with a Hitwise report of the top 20 search variations on 'climate change':
Australian Search Variations on 'Climate Change'
Criticism that the Garnaut report needs to be simplified for public consumption could be justified with some of the queries asking for a basic definition of climate change ('what is climate change', 'define: climate change'). There is an interest in the science and validity of climate change ('climate change proof', 'climate change science' and 'climate change skeptics') as well as concern for the impact of climate change ('effects of climate change', 'climate change vulnerability').
What struck me as missing are questions on practical steps that individuals and organisations can take to limit their impact on the environment. Perhaps this is indicative of the confusion around what contributes the most to climate change. If you believe the lawyers on Boston Legal, taking a walk to the shops could be worse for the environment than driving a car.
For the scientists, economists and policy makers involved in the climate change debate, monitoring how Internet users search on 'climate change' can provide a measure of how well knowledge is being disseminated to the general public.
Posted by Sandra Hanchard at 10:22 AM
Posted to climate change
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Comments
Bigger tuna, smaller cow farts - when will this madness end? To get this into perspective, we're talking about 0.8 degC over 120 years, with no increase for the past 11 years. There's nothing unusual about this. There's no reason to believe that human activity has anything to do with it - in fact, as time goes on, there is less suport data for the hypothesis. It's time to listen to the scientists instead of the politicians.
Posted by: Ross James at July 11, 2008 10:42 PM
