This week on moyers and company the earths climate does not care whether you are a democrat or a republican. It doesnt care whether youre liberal or conservative. Climate change will affect all americans no matter what your political beliefs, your religious beliefs, your race, class, creed, et cetera, okay. And in the end the only way were going to deal with this issue isf we come together as a country and have a serious conversation, not about is it real. But what can we do about it. And, the nra and the big business of gun violence. Announcer funding is provided by Carnegie Corporation of new york, celebrating 100 years of philanthropy, and committed to doing real and permanent good in the world. The kohlberg foundation. Independent production fund, with support from the partridge foundation, a john and polly guth charitable fund. The clements foundation. Park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The herb alpert foundation, supporting organizations Whose Mission is to promote compassion and creativity in our society. The bernard and audre rapoport foundation. The john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. Anne gumowitz. The betsy and jesse fink foundation. The hkh foundation. Barbara g. Fleischman. And by our sole corporate sponsor, mutual of america, designing customizedndividual and Group Retirement pduct thats why were your retirement company. Welcome. So as you know, we avoided the cliff, at least for the moment. But only for the moment. A bigger grand canyon looms ahead, in about two months, as the government reaches its debt ceiling and cant borrow any more money. President obama wants to lift that ceiling. The republicans dont. And it appears were heading for another thelma and louise ride to the edge. Remember they went over. Well discuss that possibility next week with paul krugman, the Nobel Laureate in economics and New York Times columnist whose bestselling book, end this depression now calls for full employment as an alternative to austerity. Read it, then send us the question you would like me to put to paul krugman. Meanwhile, another reality beckons and theres a menace more threatening than the fiscal cliff ever was. What should really be scaring the daylights out of us the crisis which could make all the others irrelevant is Global Warming. Get this one wrong and its over not just for the usa, but for planet earth. Thats the message delivered by Hurricane Sandy, and by almost all the extreme weather of the past two years. And here in the first month of the new year, its the message from the most informed scientists in the world. Theyre scared, for real. And they say that unless we slow the release of global emissions fromossil fuel sloit enough to keep the planets temperature from rising by two degrees celsius, or 3. 6 degrees fahrenheit, the earths polar ice sheets will melt away with catastrophic consequences. Times running out. Not one, but two major scientific reports in the last few weeks have concluded that the rapid increase in fossil fuel emissions makes that increase of two degrees celsius all but inevitable. This headline in the National Journal spells it out. Its already too late to stop Climate Change. Yet as the clock ticks away and warnings mount, official washington irresponsibly continues to look the other way. And so does the Beltway Press as demonstrated in that town hall debate last fall when cnns Candy Crowley almost almost asked barack obama and mitt romney about Global Warming. Climate change, i had that question, all you Climate Change people, we just, you know again, we knew the economy was still the main thing so you knew you kind of wanted to go with the economy. And so she veered away, avoiding the issue as if Global Warming is of concern only to a small clique of elites instead of every one of us. And so for the First Time Since 1984 there was no mention of Climate Change in any of the president ial debates. No mention as that clock ticks away and the warnings mount. Why isnt this planetary emergency on every politicians mind . Why are any of us still silent . Those questions prompted me to ask Anthony Leiserowitz joi me at this table. Hes director of the yale project on Climate Change communication and a Research Scientist at Yale Universitys school of forestry and environmental studies. Hes a geographer by training, with a specialty in human behavior, the psychology of Risk Perception and Decision Making an expert on the publics perception of Climate Change and whether people are willing to change their behavior to make a difference. He has said, you almost couldnt design a problem that is a worse fit with our underlying psychology. Tony leiserowitz, welcome. Oh thank you, bill, its great to be here. What did you mean that we almost couldnt design a problem that is a worse fit with our underlying psychology . What go you mean by that . Well, look, as human beings we are exquisitely attuned to whats happening in our immediately environment and what we can see around us and what literally touches us physically. If youre walking through the woods and you hear the crack of a stick behind you, your body immediately goes into a fear response, a fight or flight response. Clate change isnt that kind of a problem. Its not an immediate, visceral threat. And i can say right now, this very day we can look out the window and theres co2, Carbon Dioxide, pouring out of tailpipes, pouring out of buildings, pouring out of smokestacks. And yet we cant see it, its invisible. The fundamental causes of this global problem are invisible to us. And likewise the impacts are largely invisible to us as well unless you know where to look. So its a problem that first of all we cant see. And secondly its a problem that is seemingly faceless. Its not like terrorists who we can imagine who are coming after us trying to kill us and challenge our fundamental values. Its a problem that we cant see, thats going to have long term impacts that arent going to just impact us now, but impact us into the future. Impact our children and our grandchildren. But youve seen the stories. 2012 the hottest year on record. 2011 Carbon Dioxide emissions the highest on record. Arctic sea ice shrank to a record low. The Worlds Largest trees are dying at an alarming rate, i could go on and on. These are signs d signals, are they not . Y are. And, in fact, 2011 was an alltime record year in the united states, for example. We had 14 individual climate and weather related disasters that each cost this country more than 1 billion. That was an alltime record, blew away previous records. And in 2012, we had events ranging from the summerlike days in january in chicago with people out on the beach, clearly not a normal occurrence, an unusually warm spring, record setting searing temperatures across much of the lower 48, one of the worst droughts that america has ever experienced, a whole succession of extreme weather events. And i havent even gotten to Hurricane Sandy yet. Right. And the real question is at what point do we put on the brakes . So let me just use a simplifying analogy here. In some ways this issue is kind of like were in a car driving through a very dark night, therere kids in the back, theyre not buckled. Were fiddling with the radio, were probably eating something at the same time and were passing warning signs that are saying, curvy road up ahead. Mountain road up ahead. Be careful, there are landslides. And yet were going probably 70 miles an hour and our foot is on the accelerator. So the real question is we are going to hit this patch of really rocky road. Its there up ahead of us. Were not exactly sure how soon were going to get there, but its coming. The question is do we start applying the brake . Theres a big difference between entering that stretch of road at ten miles an hour where even if we have an accident itll be, you know, just bumps a bruises and a little body damage perhaps versus hitting that same stretch of road at 70 miles an hour. Heres the problem with that as i see it. The Global Accounting Firm pricewaterhousecoopers has warned that even if we doubled our current rate of reducing Carbon Emissions we would still be facing six degrees of warming, an almost intolerable situation, by the end of this century. Now the driver of that car with her children in the backseat hurtling down the road, not paying attention to the signs, is hardly going to p on the brakes because they heard about a report from the Global Accounting Firm pricewaterhousecooper. Thats right. It is about the warning signs. But heres one of the real dilemmas, is that weve done a really good job at helping people understand that there is this thing called Climate Change. Almost all americans have at least heard of it. But weve in our own work showed that in fact there is no single public. There are multiple publics within the united states. In fact, what weve identified are x americas. Six america six difrent ameris th each respond to this issue in very different ways and need different kinds of information about Climate Change to become more engaged with it. So the first group that weve identified is a group we call the alarmed. Its about 16 of the public. These are people who think its happening, that its human caused, that its a serious and urgent problem and theyre really eager to get on with the solutions. But they dont know what those solutions are. They dont know what they can do individually and they dont know what we can do collectively as a society to deal with it. We havent done a very good job of explaining what we can do. Then comes a group that we cal thconcned. This is about 29 of the public. These are people that think okay, its happening, its human caused, its serious, but they tend to think of it as distant. Distant in time, that the impacts wont be felt for a generation or more and distant in space, that this is about polar bears or maybe small island countries, not the united states, not my state, not my community, not my friends and family or the people and places that i care about. So they believe this is a serious problem, but they dont see it as a priority. Then comes a group, about a quarter of the public that we call the cautious. These are people who are kind of still on the fence, theyre trying to make up their mind. Is it happening, is it not . Is it human, is it natural . Is it a serious risk or is it kind of overblown . So theyre paying attention but really just havent made up their mind about it yet. They need to be just engaged in some of the basic facts of Climate Change. Then comes a group, about eight percent of the public that we call the disengaged. Theyve heard of Global Warming, but they dont know anything about it. They say over and over, i dont know anything about the causes, i dont know anything about the consequences. I dont know anything about the potential solutions. So for them its really just basic awareness that they need to be engaged on. Two last groups, one is we call the doubtful, its about 13 of the public. These are people who say, well, i dont think its happening, but if it is, its natural, nothing humans had anything to do with and therefore nothing we can do anything about. So they dont pay that much attention, but theyre predisposed to say not a problem. And then last but not least, 8 of americans are what call the dismissive. D these are people whore firmlyonvied its t happening, its not human caused, its not a serious problem and many are what we would lovingly call conspiracy theorists. They say its a hoax. Its scientists making up data, its a u. N. Plot to take away american sovereignty and so on. Now, thats only 8 . But theyre a very well mobilized, organized and loud 8 . And theyve tended to dominate the public square, okay. So here you have these six totally different audiences that need completely different types of information and engagement to deal with this issue. So one of the first tasks, and you know this as a communicator as well as i do, o of the first rules of Effective Communication is, know thy audience. If you dont know who your audience is its kind of like playing darts in a crowded room with the lights off. You might hit the target sometimes, but most times youre going to miss. And unfortunately too often youre going to do collateral damage. Youre actually going to hit somebody by mistake and cause a backlash. So you know, this is why if we were to do a true Engagement Campaign in this country we would need to recognize that there are very different americans who need to be engaged in very different ways who have different values and who trust different messengers. Assume that im a skeptic. Not only a skeptic but a Tea Party Republican who goes to church every sunday where my beloved pastor tells me that, reassures me that god created the earth 6,000 years ago, and that if god wants to end the earth god will on gods terms, that this is out of our control. If you were sitting across from a good, disciplined believer like that, what argument would you make to me . Well, the first thing i would do is i would listen, i would really listen. Because id want to know really what are the depths of, not just their concerns about this issue, but what are their aspirations . What do they want for their children . What do they want for their grandchildren . What kind of community do they want to live in . What are the values that really animate and motivate them . And i would try to find some way tohen meet tm where they are first. So lets just take the religious side. There are wonderful activities going on by all of the worlds major religions right now including the evangelical churches to say this is a moral and religious issue, okay. From our worldview, from our standpoint, this is crucial both because we were commanded by god in genesis to till and tend the garden, to care for his creation which when he created he kept telling us, it is good. Okay, it is our responsibility they would say to ke ce of his creation, and that the kinds of things that we are currently doing to the planet are essentially violating that promise. But moreover, were also seeing the theme of social justice, that weve been commanded, they would say, to take care of the least of these. The poor, the sick, the powerless both in our own country and around the world. And many churches, in fact, have invested enormous resources, i mean, sending their young people abroad to do great works to try to help peopleho desperately need that help. Their argument would be how can we in good conscience ignore a problem thats just going to push millions of more people around the world into those exact same kinds of circumstances were trying to help them with, okay. So all im saying is that the Faith Community itself is not monolithic, it isnt homogenous. And it too is trying, currently, struggling to make sense of this new issue and what is the role of religious faith in answering it. What do you say to the secularist . I say lets engage on the science. Let me hear what your arguments are and then lets respond to em. And i would ask in turn that you listen to what the Scientific Community has to say. Its perfectly fine to have a great conversation with many people about the science itself because the science is so robust at this point. I mean, we have basically known for over 20 years now that, and it actually boils down, for all the complexity of the science its really quite simple. Its real, okay, Climate Change is real. It is mostly human caused this time. Therhaveeen Climate Changes over many millions of years in the past that had nothing to do with human beings. This time its mostly being caused by our activities. Third, its going to be bad. In fact, its bad now and its going to get worse. Fourth, theres hope, that there are lots of solutions already on the table that are in fact already being implemented in this country, communities all across this country as well as around the world. Theres an enormous amount of work that we can do right now with things that we have in hand. And then last but not least, whate al know is that many americandont understand this one last crucial fact, and that is that the vast majority of the experts, the people who study this day in, day out for a living agree that its happening, that its human caused and thats going to be serious. How, then, do you reconcile the religious and secularist imperatives . Well, it really actually boils down to this fundamental question of what is the proper relationship between human beings and the Natural World, okay . That is really at the heart of it, what our challenge is in th coury. Are we going to live in a world where we believe that we have mastery, domination over this planet, where it is basically a stockpile of resources for us to use and to use as quickly and rapidly as possible to give us all the things that we like . Or do we have deeper responsibilities to the life of this planet . Because in fact species, ecosystems are not just inert warehouses of resources. They have evolved along with human beings. R own evolution self is inseparable from the climate system, the biophysical world and the other species that we ride on this rock with. What is our responsibility to them . And i think one of the most interesting things that comes out of science