Environmental Concern: The Day After Tomorrow

Environmental Concern: The Day After Tomorrow

Environmental Concern: The Day After Tomorrow

The film The Day After Tomorrow - released on 28 May - will only assist to increase media interest in this issue. This end-of-the-world disaster film provides an ecological horror story about climate change, where Los Angeles is destroyed by tornados, New York is drowned by a tidal wave and Europe freezes with the onset of a new ice age. The film will have a potential audience of 500 million people, and is set to put climate change on the “mainstream” agenda.

Environmentalists hope that the Hollywood blockbuster will change people's perceptions about climate change, while others have warned that the film is a manipulation of science to serve a political agenda. The ratification of the Kyoto Agreement in 2002 committed the UK to reducing carbon emissions by 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The Government has set a more ambitious domestic goal - a 20% reduction in carbon emissions by 2010. The Energy White Paper (2003) sets an aspiration of a 60% cut by 2050. (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979)

The natural environment - An international Issue

Various surveys have recorded high levels of public concern for global environmental issues; their importance has been reduced somewhat by the war in against terrorism, which has come to dominate public concern in Britain. Currently, the “environment” is not as salient a national issue as it was in the late 1980s/early 1990s, when it briefly became seen as one of the most important issues facing Britain. Since then, concerns about defense/foreign affairs and the delivery of public services - the NHS and schools/education - have become more important. Whilst 'global warming' has become a household term, public awareness of the international framework for tackling climate change is low. (Laibson, 1997)

Public comprehending of ...