Talking About the Environment with Skeptics Make it Personal Rebecca L. Dodge, Ph.D.

Top 10 environmental problems Planet Earth Herald http://planetearthherald.c om/top-10-environmental- issues/ Population Climate Change Biodiversity loss Nutrient pollution – phosphorus and Nitrogen cycles Water Ocean acidification Pollution Ozone Layer Depletion Overfishing Deforestation http://planetearthherald.com/editors- views/

Top 10 environmental problems Croft Communications http://www.listofenviro nmentalissues.com/ Invasive species Climate Change Air pollution Plant diseases Overpopulation Endangered species Industrialized agriculture Ozone layer depletion Water pollution http://www.dentisthighl andsranchco.com/

Top 10 environmental problems Conserve Energy Future http://www.conserve-energy- future.com/current- environmental-issues.php Pollution Climate change Global warming Deforestation Overpopulation Industrial and household waste Acid Rain Ozone layer depletion Genetic Engineering Urban sprawl http://www.conserve-energy- future.com/author/rinkesh

We can focus on lists like these and get depressed quickly. The future does not have to be bleak. Choose to learn about our environment based on scientific facts, not politics economics religion anything else that stands in the way of a good future

10 biggest global challenges World Economic Forum 2016 https://www.weforum.org/agen da/2016/01/what-are-the-10- biggest-global-challenges/ Agriculture and food security Inclusive growth and development Employment Climate change Global financial access Technological transformation Gender equality International trade and investment Long term investing (infrastructure and development) Healthcare

Understand the connections among different environmental stressors Agriculture Habitat loss Biodiversity loss Nutrient pollution Water pollution Soil loss Invasive species

T = technology (energy using items) Understand the IPAT equation IPAT equation (I = P x A x T) Determines human impact I = impact (environmental) P = population (size, growth, distribution) A = affluence (individual consumption) T = technology (energy using items)

Understand that the most important environmental issue to any individual or group is controlled by Geography Social status Wealth Employment

Make it Personal Communicate your knowledge with reference to your audience Know examples that they can relate to, where people like them are realizing human impacts on the environment whether they want to or not Coastal communities Agricultural/ranching communities Communities who face water shortages Hunters/fishermen Skiers

Make it Personal Communicate your knowledge with reference to your audience Start a conversation on a personal level. Ask them if they know anyone who affected by Coastal retreat? Invasive species? (fire ants; Zebra Mussel; feral hogs; rainbow trout; pine bark beetles?) http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/04/18/523406934/in-the- rockies-climate-change-spells-trouble-for-cutthroat-trout

Make it Personal Communicate your knowledge with reference to your audience Drought? Disease? (West Nile Virus; Zika) Biodiversity loss? (honeybees) Have something to say about real impacts on real people

Be informed, not opinionated Keep track of issues with reputable scientific sources Earth & Sky http://earthsky.org/earth/usgs-more-earthquakes- due-to-human-activities Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2017/0330/How-climate- skeptics-are-trying-to-influence-200-000-science-teachers NASA Earth Observatory https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/

I want to recommend the video http://earthsky.org/earth/our-future-doesnt-have-to-be-dismal and the website Seeds of a Good Anthropocene https://goodanthropocenes.net/om/ OBJECTIVE: We aim to counterbalance current dystopic visions of the future that may be inhibiting our ability to move towards a positive future for the Earth and humanity.  We will do this by soliciting, exploring, and developing a suite of alternative, plausible “Good Anthropocenes” – positive visions of futures that are socially and ecologically desirable, just, and sustainable. You can dig into this site and have a plethora of examples to share. Be the good news bringer!

The planetary boundaries concept presents a set of nine planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. We’ve already exceeded four of the boundaries. Only human-led initiatives can bring us back to living within them. Image via Stockholm University.

https://www2.usgs.gov/faq/categories/ Does the production of natural gas from shales cause earthquakes? If so, how are the earthquakes related to these operations? To produce natural gas from shale formations, it is necessary to increase the interconnectedness of the pore space (permeability) of the shale so that the gas can flow through the rock mass and be extracted through production wells. This is usually done by hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). Fracking causes extremely small earthquakes, but they are almost always too small to be a safety concern. In addition to natural gas, fracking fluids and salt water trapped in the same formation as the gas are returned to the surface. These wastewaters are frequently disposed of by injection into deep wells. The injection of wastewater and salt water into the subsurface can cause earthquakes that are large enough to be felt and may cause damage. Do all wastewater disposal wells induce earthquakes? No. Of more than 150,000 Class II injection wells in the United States, roughly 40,000 are waste fluid disposal wells for oil and gas operations. Only a small fraction of these disposal wells have induced earthquakes that are large enough to be of concern to the public.