1. The 'Pragmatic Environmentalist' by Jonas Sonnenschein Learn, Apply, Communicate Web Conference, June 2009 IIIEE, Lund University, Sweden This presentation is available on: http://www.slideshare.net

3. Environmental Communication and Fallacies

4. The 'Pragmatic Environmentalist'

5. Reactions to the project

6. Part I The Learn, Apply, Communicate Course Course Website: http://iiiee-students.se/lac/

7. Learn ... ... what is taught in the online part of the Master in Environmental Management and Policy ! Apply ... ... your knowledge about a specific topic that is apparent in your surrounding! Communicate ... ... your project and discuss it with your peers and external experts!

8. So, what project should I chose?

9. My location during the online-course was the Internet

10. The topic was our natural environment – real life!

11. But if you cannot see the natural environment you have to rely on communication!

12. Environmental problems and their social, economic and political consequences are often not visible in our direct surrounding! Happy Scanian Cow, Autumn 2008

13. Therefore, environmental communication is necessary ... ... but might be flawed!

14. Part II Environmental Communication and Fallacies

15. Some common fallacies in Environmental Communication:

16. 1. An expert in a field is not always an authority!

17. ... but some experts definitely are.

18. 2. Environmental problems usually have more than one solution!

19. ... leaving out alternatives might create false dilemmas A B C D E F G H I J K L or M N O P

20. 3. A logical structure does not help if the underlying assumptions are wrong!

22. Nicotine is not a toxic substance.

23. Thus, we can use nicotine for food production. Logically valid, but wrong. Nicotine is toxic!

24. 4. Too many IFs might lead to questionable solutions! (slippery-slope arguments)

25. If carbon from the atmosphere can be stored in biochar, CCS in biochar can contribute to the reduction of the greenhouse effect. If biochar can reduce the greenhouse effect and the addition of biochar to the soil can be made economically attractive biochar producers, farmers, and politicians can profit. If all important stakeholders profit from biochar it will be successful on the market. If a product is successful on the market it will spread out around the world. If biochar is successful around the world the greenhouse effect will be reduced significantly. Thus, the use of biochar will reduce global warming significantly! Is it really that easy?

26. 5. The lack of proof for a statement does not support the opposite!

27. Uncertainty about future global warming does not mean that there will not be any warming

28. Fallacies in Environmental Communication can be found everywhere!

29. Seldom in reviewed articles ...

30. ... more often in science journalism ...

31. KEELY reckons yesterday's climate change demo at Stansted backfired. She said: “ I have some sympathy with protesters, but causing so many planes to divert puts MORE carbon dioxide into the Atmosphere.” ... regularly in tabloids ...

32. ... countless times on the Internet.

33. Policy making is based on scientific consultancy, lobbying and public opinion.

34. Behavior of individual people is strongly influenced by media and by other people's opinions and behavior.

35. Therefore, environmental policies or consumption decisions might easily be based on flawed communication !

36. Part III The 'Pragmatic Environmentalist'

37. The 'Pragmatic Environmentalist' blog analyzes logical errors in environment related communication.

38. The power to communicate a certain statement and bias public debate is not in the focus of this project ...

39. ... but differences in power do exist and matter.

40. Is blogging the appropriate form of communication for my project?

41. YES! free accessibility easy commenting function unproblematic linking to sources subscriptions to new posts tracking of the success interactivity good writing practice

42. NO! insignificance in the width of the Internet not r egarded as scientific not suitable for long analyses easy tracking of failure :(

43. Be that as it may, I set up a blog and called it ...

44. Pragmatic Environmentalist “ relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic” Source: Merriam-Webster OnLine

45. Pragmatic Environmentalist “ an advocate of environmentalism” which is the “advocacy of the preservation, restoration, or improvement of the natural environment” Source: Merriam-Webster OnLine

46. The name of the blog is reflected in my posts about ...

47. ... the false dilemma of choosing between climate change or no climate change ...

48. ... appealing to the IPCC as an authority in the field of climate change ...

49. ... the slippery slope argument of using biochar as a panacea to stop global warming ...

50. ... wishful thinking about the effect of reducing the amount of plastic bags ...

51. ... and irrelevant and wrong premises in an argument against the credibility of climate models.

52. So far, the blog is mainly inspired by a couple of online sources.

53. green

54. A good introduction to the theory of informal logics can be found in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

55. Part IV Reactions to the Project

56. A free software allowed me to analyze the traffic on my blog.

57. Weekly visitors (June 3rd) [In week 22 I sent the address of the blog to two different mailing lists.]

58. Countries Top 10 (June 3rd)

59. Some readers left comments to my posts.

60. I received some mails with statements of support ...

61. ... but all the mails I sent to people or institutions that are quoted in my blog remained unanswered.

62. Now it's time to visit my blog: pragmatic-environmentalist.blogspot.com Thanks for your attention! And in the end some ...

63. ... environmental silence after all the communication Bohusleden north of Uddevalla, Sweden