Week 1 - Terms, Reading Questions and Discussion Question

Discussion Question:

According to Oresek, there is broad scientific consensus on climate change. Yet, according to a Pew Research study, only 57 percent of Americans believe there is solid evidence of global warming, and only 36 percent of Americans believe there is solid evidence of anthropogenic (or human-caused) global warming.

The study also shows that Democrats are more likely than Republicans and Independents to believe there is solid evidence for global warming. The study finds that 75 percent of Democrats believe there is solid evidence for global warming, compared to 53 percent of Independents and 35 percent of Republicans. What's more, only 18 percent of Republicans believe there is solid evidence for anthropogenic global warming. What's do you think is going on here?

Access the Pew Research Study here

Terms

• Energy crisis cycle
• Greenhouse gases
• Greenhouse effect
• Carbon cycle
• Anthropogenic climate change
• Peak oil

Reading Questions

Houghton

1. Analogies can help us better understand concepts with which we are unfamiliar. Come up with an analogy for the greenhouse effect.

2. How does carbon dioxide get into the atmosphere, and what other gases affect global warming?

3. What role do humans play in the production or creation of greenhouse gases?

Smith

1. Describe public opinion on offshore oil drilling before and after the Santa Barbara Oil Spill in 1969. What does Smith argue?

2. Smith writes, "People will get angry and demand that politicians solve their problems if something is being taken away from them, but their response is much more muted when something that they did not have before is not being given to them." How does this statement help us make sense of public opinion on energy policy? Can you think of other national problems to which this statement applies?

3. According to Smith, how or why did the modern environmental movement set the stage for the energy crisis in the 1970s?

4. In the agenda setting literature, focusing events are sudden calamities that cause both citizens and policymakers to pay more attention to a public problem and often to press for solutions. What events helped increase the salience of environmental and energy problems? What role did the media play?