Social Media and Climate Change

I was ill and not present in class on Tuesday when we discussed climate change so my post will based on my own observations on the subject. Our side of the room was assigned to discuss how social media might provide solutions to the situation. The day I found out about this assignment this post appeared on my Face book newsfeed.

http://www.glennbeck.com/2015/03/17/dont-believe-in-global-warming-al-gore-thinks-you-need-to-be-punished/

“Former Vice President Al Gore on Friday called on SXSW attendees to punish climate-change deniers, saying politicians should pay a price for rejecting ‘accepted science.'” The Chicago Tribune reported that Gore told the audience “we need to put a price on denial in politics.” “I want to ask you, what kind of country and what kind of world do you want to live in? What does the First Amendment really even mean? Do you have a right to free speech? Do you have a right to freedom of thought? Do you have a right to exist if your thoughts are spoken out loud and they happen to disagree with others?” Glenn said on radio.

I think many social media users have the misconception that by informing others about a problem they have somehow participated in the solution. Although, I do think that we need to inform each other about problems so that we can all become more educated and aware, education does not equal solution. Solutions take organization and action. Unfortunately, most social media users are hoping that someone else will take care of that part of the solution. The whole idea of going green or what was called environmentalism back in the day has always been quite interesting to me. I find that people claim be concerned about climate change, but pick and choose where they are willing to sacrifice. For example, when you see the activist drive up to a protest in his big SUV, but for some reason he can’t figure out why you don’t take him seriously.

While researching this on the internet I came across an article title “Why social media is important in the #climatewars. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/02/why-social-media-is-important-in-the-climatewars/  This article claims that social networking is the glue for the cause. It literally spells out a prescription of how people that do not believe in climate change can use social media to disrupt the efforts of those calling for change through social media. It goes as far as to tell them who to follow on Facebook and twitter, the biggest climate mouthpieces, and instructs them to post or tweet a counter to any climate alarmism they see. They refer to themselves as the #armyofdavids.

This is a good example of organization done through social networking. This article does not just pass on information, but gives instructions on how to take action. Obviously, this kind of action will not really give a solution to anyone, but just fuels the argument. What if you used the same kind of organization to give people instruction on how they can become part of the solution by taking action?  Give people some guidance on how to become part of the solution. I know I don’t really know how I could make a difference in many arenas, if I just had a little bit of guidance on the simple things I could do, I would most likely do them. It would be much more helpful for people to post ideas or even selfies of what they are personally doing to make a difference in their effort to save the planet, then to post some article about the war the politicians are currently having about it. Show me what you are doing and what I can do. That is taking action and becoming part of the solution. Passing along information simply informs people.

Social media is a great tool for organizing. The trick is passing along instructions on how to take action, not simply passing along information and hoping someone else will take action.