This document discusses the social construction of environmental issues related to global warming. It suggests calling the issue "human climate disruption" as a way to use rectitude and endangerment rhetoric that is also comfortable language for scientists. The document notes that after decades of policy and research, unsustainable behavior persists due to overshadowing by politics and uncertainty. It proposes using agent-based models to look at how interacting agents with social roles, rhetoric, and power can emerge to overcome social inertia. Charts are included showing how media streams have tracked the social construction of issues and how varied social parameters can modify environmentally responsible behavior.

1. Shall We Call It
Global Warming,
Climate Variability or
Human Climate Disruption?
The Social Construction of Global Warming
Mike Page, NCAR-USA
Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
Berlin
December 2, 2005

2. After two decades of governmental policy
and scientific research, environmentally
unsustainable behavior around
the globe persists.
Overshadowed by politics and uncertainty,
the social construction of environmental
issues has created a social inertia that needs
to be more completely understood.

3. Social Construction of
Environmental Issues
Claims Maker Rhetoric Social Power
Scientist Rationality Expert(3)
Industrialist Endangerment Reward(4)
Politician Rectitude Legitimate(1)
Legitimate(1)
Media Balance Referent(2)
Expert(3)

4. Tracking Social Construction
Content Analysis of Media Streams
2 3 5 6
.18 .17 .20 .17
Science Press 1 1 Magazines
.19 .20
1 1 3 4
Newspapers Policy Television Policy
.18 .19 .15 .19
0 .34
10 -.33
0 .31
ECI* ECI*
(Trumbo, 1995)
ECI - Extreme Concern Index

5. Let’s Call It
“Human Climate Disruption”
• Rhetoric of rectitude
• Rhetoric of endangerment
• Comfortable language for the
scientific community
• Still use expert power

6. Modeling Social Construction
• Beyond mathematical modeling
• Intangibles and complexities of
social behavior
• Agent-based models
• Interacting agents incorporating social roles,
rhetoric and social power
• Look for emergent behaviors
• Is there a way to overcome social inertia?

7. Agent Diagram
values:
personal costs,
message depersonalized trust
maximize
behavior
cognitive attitude
message
coherence
environment
response to
social
social
powers
powers

8. Environmentally Responsible Behavior
(ERB) Modified by Varied Social Parameters
B
e
h
a
v
i
o
r
Personal
Costs Depersonalized
Trust

9. End
mpage@ucar.edu