Read the article The EcoPerception Gap (http://conservationmagazine.org/2012/09/

Question

Read the article The EcoPerception Gap (http://conservationmagazine.org/2012/09/the-ecoperception-gap/).The author lists three examples from his friends at the beginning of the article. Can you come up with a perception gap in yourself or an acquaintance? What factors have led you to process information related to this issue in an emotional way rather than logical?

The author of "the EcoPerception Gap" says that one reason people have less fear of certain global environmental issues, such as climate change, is that they believe it will only affect ‘someone else.’ Do you think this is true? What other conservation issue face the same hurdle in gaining public appreciation? What activities can a conservation scientist do to connect people to environmental issues? Do you know of an example that has done this effectively? (HINT: could be a local issue).

Explanation / Answer

Yes, an example of perception gap is that nowadays people are using herbal remedies more without thinking that they can be harmful in certain cases also because they think that organic means safe and reliable without going or researching about the product.

The factors that led to process this information is emotional rather than logical:

Instinct feeling: our instinct feeling that organic products are natural , free of chemicals and without any side effects and hence safe.

Risk natural vs manmade: Also if a risk is natural we feel less scarier than if it is man made.

Risk vs benefits: if the benefit of choosing a thing is more than the risk we feel less scarier. In this case using herbal remedies the benefits are more but the risk is not known or in rare cases.

Imposed risk vs voluntary:Also since in this case the risk is voluntary so we are not scared of that as compared to that risk which is imposed upon us

Trust: trust has a huge impact on our risk perception. The knowledge which we have developed about a particular thing influences our decision. Since in this case, we know or we have learned from others that herbal remedies are without any side effects. So before taking any herbal remedies we dont give it a second thought about its risks.

Can it happen to me: We are more concerned to any risk if we have personally experinced it.

We have less fear of certain global environmental issues such as climate change because we think that this issue is for concern only for a certain group of people like environmentalists. So we have aasociated that this problem can be solved by them or they will find the solution for us. But this is not true because things like climate change will affect all of us in a certain way. Increase in concentration of CO2 and other green house gases cause global warming which leads to melting of polar ice which ultimately flood the landand can be disastrous to whole mankind.

Other conseravtion issues having hurdle in gaining public appreciation:

Shortage of water: although water is contained in earth in a huge quantity in the form of oceans and seas but only 2% of it is available in the form of fresh water in lakes, rivers ,ground water etc which can be used. Shortage of clean water is acute.

Population growth: as population grows so demand of water also takes places. Due to increase in population climate change as well as pollution also increases.

Sanitatiton problem: People living in rural countries are still lacking proper sanitation problem which leads to increase in health risks.

Scientists can make people aware about the environmental issues by telling about the risks they can experience if they dont pay heed to environment. So it very important for them to conserve the environment. they can made them aware of the risk involved also as well as providing them the remedies to solve it.

For example landslides can occur in mountaineous regions where the slope is high the triggering factor is rain. But the root cause is lack of vegation cover which loosens the soil and cause soil erosion ulitmately can transform into landslide. So here telling them about the importance of vegetation to combat theses natural risks can be effective.

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