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Back to Basics

-- Micah -- 09/04/2008

Climate policy is heavily laden with jargon and acronyms that seem at times indecipherable to the public.  Climate scientists along with their counterparts in the realm of public policy use language that can often mystify, confuse, or fly right over the heads of audiences that aren’t “in the know.”   As an Ohio League of Conservation Voters staffer and as a Master’s candidate at Miami University’s Institute of Environmental Sciences, I often take for granted the words, phrases, and acronyms that are part of my daily conversations. 

This became quite clear to me this past Labor Day as I talked with an old friend about what I am doing in my new job.  “I’m working to help establish a strong cap and trade system for CO2 emissions,” I said.  “What does that mean, cap and trade?” he replied.  Thus I embarked on a long winded story of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the implementation and success of the SO2 cap and trade program, and the importance of using market-driven systems to curtail pollution.  My friend, a steel worker at AK in Middletown, seemed satisfied with what I had to say, but also admitted that he’d quit listening to me “about ½ way through” my speech.  “I understood you, but you used a lot of words I don’t use... I don’t think I could explain cap and trade to someone else,” he said. 

Upon hearing this I thought to myself, “Oh, man, I failed.”  And I had. 

Those of us fighting for strong climate change legislation need to ask ourselves, “How can I make the seriousness of climate change and the potential for a strong national system to fight against global warming more easily understood?”  As those fighting the good fight, our language, tone, and individual personalities play a significant part in answering this question, but, fundamentally, we need to share good information and sound science from reputable sources AND do it without ten dollar words. 

If you recognize the enormous challenge of tackling a global phenomenon like climate change, and if at times you (like me) seem to be talking more Martian than English, I suggest going back to basics.  In that spirit, I offer a few links to websites with embedded videos that I think do a fair job of describing: Global Warming and Cap and Trade.  Further, this site has a comprehensive climate glossary. It is a great resource for bringing those "out of the know" into it.