Introduction to the blog for module GEOGG131

"We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society. Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it’s not going to protect you from the coming storm.”

                                       President Obama’s energy policy speech at Georgetown University June 2013

The reader may have noticed that the address for this blog is flatearthsocietyblog. I thought it was rather clever when I watched President Obama’s speech and delighted me as a geography graduate. It turns out that there actually IS  a real Flat Earth Society in full force today. 

deviantart.com

Though to give them credit, Society President Daniel Shenton does “… believe the evidence available does support the position that climate change is at least partially influenced by human industrialisation." I choose the name because once upon a time not too long ago, people ‘knew’ that their world was flat because that’s what they were taught. Changing people’s known facts and convictions are difficult.

The quote refers to deniers of anthropogenic climate change as ‘members’ of a Flat Earth Society, but this blog WON’T only be about deniers or misinformation, but also the exaggerations (purposeful or not) presented in the mass media. I will dabble in a range of sources from academic journals and published materials to popular news stations and websites. Accurate but realistic communication to the general masses is utterly important to topics like this. Ninety seven percent of scientists agree that climate change is happening due to human activities and it is time for ninety seven percent of the public to know it is true.

So whether one believes that they will fall off the edge of the world or that humans aren’t drastically altering the climate, it is because this is what was communicated to them. The act of relaying scientific information to the general population is a huge responsibility that should not be taken advantage of.