Investigating Environmental Problems There are AT LEAST 2 sides to every story

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Investigating Environmental Problems (There are
AT LEAST 2 sides to every story)
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Climate Change

• Want to reduce global warming?

Farting
Meat
Campfires
Driving
Sex
Cavities
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It IS About the Information!!!!

• THOUSANDS of stories each day
• Each with their own story
• You have to be the skeptic
• Is that really right?
• How can I know?

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Some Factors

• Politics
• Perception/Influence
• And some others

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The Politicizing of Information

• Why does this occur???

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Government neutrality

• Is a pipedream
• Information from the government generally
  reflects its agenda
• Not to say the info is falsemerely REPRESENTATION

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Helpful site Archive.org

• Websites are dynamic!!!

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Other Politics
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The Power of Money

• How does money influence information?
• Funded Research
• Grants, grants, grants (sources?)
• Information creation

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• Is this a surprise??
• Why would this occur?

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Funded Research

• This is reality research at the corporate and
  academic levels are funded primarily by the
  government and corporations
• Is this always bad? Nobut you need to be aware
  of how funded research can skew information..

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Uncertainty

• Science is inherently inexact
• Uncertainty (the result) is used to represent
  alternative viewpoints
• Uncertainty can also be blatantly ignored to make
  a point

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Results of Research

• Websites
• Books
• Journal Articles
• Blogs, etc, etc.

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Peer Review A Reliable Solution?

• Yesin many cases.
• Butnot all government publications are subject
  to peer review
• Peer reviewed items are generally not intended
  for public consumption

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Peer Review A Reliable Solution?

• Yesin many cases.
• Butnot all government publications are subject
  to peer review
• Peer reviewed items are generally not intended
  for public consumption

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Info Creation
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Helpful Site WhoIS databases
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Influence and Perception

• Information is easily influenced by others
• How we perceive the information affects our
  feelings and actions

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The Power of Media

• Liberal Media
• These sayings can shape perception of the
  information before we hear it!

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Medias job to make information interesting
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SEX and Climate Change
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A word from Al Gore..
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The Nature of Blogs

• Blogs are a great way to get multiple
  perspectives on a topic
• Caution blog writing can be analogous to
  telephone
• Look for live links, clear citations, correct
  facts
• Search blogs at www.technorati.com

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Perception
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Climate Data, Brookville Lake, IN
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Climate Data, Brookville Lake, IN
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Climate Data, Brookville Lake, IN
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How do you deal with this?

• Look for other papers on similar topics. How do
  they present the information?
• What references are included?
• Has anyone cited this paper?
• Look for the data yourself!

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Citations

• You all know about reference lists
• But what about citings???
• http//www.lib.muohio.edu/indexes/S

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The Power of Crowds

• The nature of crowds/funding/status may shape
  what we see.
• We might only see the published research from a
  well-known (perhaps well funded) scientist
• Published research from an unknown scientist may
  never see the light of day (no matter how valid)
• You can make data say anything you want to say
  (and this is utilized all the time!)
• And if it doesnt say what you want to, then you
  provide doubt (uncertainty, etc).

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• The pinnacle of this theorythe movie exposed
  many new people to the topic

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Isnt that lesser known stuff somewhere?

• Yesusually it is publishedyou just might have
  to dig a little
• Google Scholar
• Environmental Databases
• http//www.lib.muohio.edu/subjects/Environment/
• Technical Reports
• White Papers

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What do I remember?

• Authority, authority, authority!!
• What do others say?
• Is there a reason I should be suspect of what Im
  seeing (format, date, author, etc).
• Does this provide the whole story?

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What do I remember?

• Watch for grab words (crisis, sham,
  catastrophe)
• Be careful of words like misinform,
  mislead..these words are often used to counteract
  differing viewpoints
• All links available
• http//del.icio.us/eresnis/431