 Global
Connections
with David Suzuki
Shades of gray dominate science
In a world where things are usually presented as either good or bad, us versus
them or black versus white, complicated issues about science and nature can leave
the public confused, ambivalent or both. And that's not good for anyone.
It's human nature to categorise. Our ability to group a complicated array of
items and issues into conceptual categories helps us understand the world and
enables us to strategise and perform complex tasks over time. At its most basic
level, it has helped us survive.
One way to describe this ability is "framing". Frames are like mental
shortcuts that take advantage of what we already know to categorise new information.
The media take advantage of this inherent desire to categorise complicated issues
quickly by presenting them in black and white terms. Politicians tend to do the
same thing, presenting issues as though there are really only two choices - the
right one and the wrong one. You're either with us or against us.
But nothing in nature is simple. Take the confusing issue of global dimming.
Most people already know about the problem of global warming - pumping out heat-trapping
gases into the atmosphere has put the planet's greenhouse effect into overdrive.
As a result, we've disrupted our climate - leading to rising temperatures, shifting
weather patterns and an increase in extreme weather events.
Global dimming, on the other hand, is another phenomenon referring to the amount
of sunlight penetrating the atmosphere. This amount has actually decreased by
about five per cent since the late 1950s because of all the light-blocking soot
we've been putting in the air from fires, smokestacks and tailpipes. But lately,
studies have shown that the earth is actually brightening again - most likely
because the amount of pollution in the atmosphere has dropped since the collapse
of the Soviet Union.
That's good news - at least at first glance. Unfortunately, scientists also
tell us that without this pollution in the air, more light and heat will get to
the surface of the earth. And since we have more heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere,
that heat will tend to accumulate - thus potentially making global warming worse.
Then again, that extra heat and sunlight might also increase evaporation and cloud
formation, which could increase global dimming once again. It's complicated.
Climate contrarians - people who insist that, despite all the evidence, global
warming is an urban myth - like to use this sort of complexity as evidence that
scientists don't really understand our climate. In reality, it just doesn't boil
down into a neat sound bite. Our climate is a very complex system that is influenced
by a number of "climate forcing" mechanisms, including greenhouse gases
and aerosols like soot in the atmosphere.
There's no shortage of challenging science topics - from climate change to
stem cell research, cloning, euthanasia and more. Genetically modified crops are
hardly discussed in North America, where they are widely grown, but they have
been hotly debated in Europe because they are created using a radical new technology,
and many people feel that they should undergo rigorous long-term testing before
being released into the environment.
However, genetic modification could also be beneficial. Farm research in China
on a genetically modified rice with built-in pest resistance has found that this
particular variety can slightly improve yields. More important, it can greatly
decrease the amount of pesticides farmers use. This seems like a great win, but
no one knows how long this pest resistance will last, or if it will cause any
other health or environmental problems. And how does this system compare to organic
farming, which uses no chemical pesticides and also has strong yields? Again,
there are no easy answers.
Our tendency to frame complex issues as either good or bad is convenient, but
it's preventing real debate from taking place. The sooner we stop trying to oversimplify
these issues and develop a common language to discuss them, the better off we
will all be.
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