Sunday, June 29, 2008

Prem's Global Warming Belief Index


Wow! Its been a while since my last post!

Anyways, this subject fueled me to write my thoughts on it!

I just watched a movie - THE LAST WINTER - an interesting thriller based on the current hot political topic of allowing oil exploration in the Artic! In simple terms, the message from the movie is - Stop lavishly using up earth's resources and if not earth reacts in unimaginable ways to defend itself - just like a species would do!

Its not your usual sci-fi, its probably one of the intelligent scientific thrillers that I have seen that is about a situation as current as it can be.

Anyways, I sometimes wonder how movies shed either a very different perspective on a certain subject or reinforce an existing perspective. In this particular instance, it got me thinking how do people perceive about global warming and where do I stand amongst all!

I thought, well let me try to map people based on their belief on global warming!

(((WARNING: This is strictly a mental exercise - the views expressed here are completely mine and does not reflect the views of any organizations or corporations I am affiliated with!)))

Obviously there are two extremes to begin with.

A. Pro extremist

- the ones who are hard core environmentalist: lobbying, researching, campaigning to save from the harmful effects of global warming

Z. Con extremist

- the ones who are hard core anti-environmentalist: lobbying, researching, campaigning to stop the pro extremists from taking over! (just so there is balance:-))

In between the extremes, I think lies the vast majority of this world and that's who I am interested in talking about!

I believe at the mid range between the two extreme lies the biggest chunk of the human population - THE DON'T CARES!!

In my mind "The Don't Cares" can be vastly categorized as follows:

J. The ignorant don't cares

- the ones who are unaware of what's going on around
(children or aged who are roughly around 35% of world population are prime examples)
- the ones who really don't care to connect the dots who are already overwhelmed by their lives!
(people below or near poverty line who are roughly around 12% of the world are prime examples)

S. The conscious don't cares

- the ones who are at least partially aware of such a phenomenon but really think that there's nothing that they can do!
(the regular 8-5 job goers who are typically the non-voters are prime examples)

Between the mid-range and the Pro extremists lie some interesting mix of folks:

E. The wants but cants

- the ones who are well to moderately aware of the situation and really want to do something because they believe in it but can't because they don't know what to do!
(the regular 8-5 job goers who are typically the real voters are prime examples)

D. The doers!

- the ones who are very well aware of the situation because they believe in it and do really know that they can partake and are the ones that are doing something!
- they too have a range in terms of what they are doing to stop global warming depending upon their means and measures to take part!
(the professionals who are in one way or other affecting the planet seriously just by the nature of their jobs are prime examples)


The other side of the spectrum also has some interesting mix I think!

Between the mid-range and the Con extremists, people could be categorized as follows:

V. the affected disbelievers

- the ones who are really getting affected by the harmful effects of global warming but still don't believe in it!
(People in power; people implementing power and people protecting power are prime examples)

X. the affected blamers

- the ones who are again really getting affected by the harmful effects of global warming in one way or the other (when you throw in economic freedom due to the pursuit of oil etc...) but instead blame other causes for the effects!
(Radicalists, extremists and terrorists are prime examples)

I got some stats off the web (don't worry - trusted sources, either way this is just a thought experiment) and pulled a chart for your viewing pleasure!

OK now is the real question??? Where do I stand?

I tend to think myself as part of the doers!! OK as far as what I do to stop global warming - that so calls for another post - stay tuned!

But how about you??? Think for a while before you categorize yourself into PREM's Global Warming Belief Index

7 comments:

MayilVahanan said...

I would fall under "E. The wants but cants". I think. Driving automobiles is one of the most important reason for pollution. But here in US, do we have an option if we decide not to drive around in our car. Other reason is the non acceptance of the people in power(esp the right wing), that global warming even exists. John McCain is one of the few cons to accept Global warming. In this case, change has to start from the top and the rest would follow suit.

Prem said...

Hey Mayil:
There's def. something we can all do... I will talk to it on a separate note!
I agree with you - politics play a huge role. But look at my graph - I think more than 60% of the world doesn't care!
Hence there has to be something that drives that 60% to change - it could be economic freedom and/or political freedom or better yet sheer AWARENESS! - so we push more people from "the don't cares" to closer to the the pro! - that could change everything!! Again just thoughts!!

Mani said...

Fantastic piece of thought model! As it sank in me more, i started to believe this thought model would fit the human behavior/response to any situation reasonably well. Take any social/global problem or any social/global situation like human slavery, dishonesty in politics, non-recognition to the less-privileged, illegal movie/music downloads, helping to the poor, child labor, corporates' dishonest ways of sustainability in a globalized economy, global warming etc, the human behavior or response (including you, me or any of our friends) could be categorized using your model. I am most of the times "wants but cants", sometimes "conscious don't cares" and sometimes "the doers" too! Leave the negative half of your graph or even ignore them (ironically on the RIGHT side of your graph and i 'd love it to be on the other side :)). but work on pushing "the doers" to become "the pros" and with help of these two categories, work on changing both "the conscious don't cares" and "wants but cants" into the "the doers". create awareness among "the ignorant cants" (of course excluding the kids :)) Once again, it is a fantastic analysis. congrats and keep it up!!!

Prem said...

Mani: Now that I think about it, yea! it could be applied to any situation.... thanks for the insight!

Anonymous said...

It was specially registered at a forum to tell to you thanks for council. How I can thank you?

Anonymous said...

Matchless topic, it is very interesting to me))))

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