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

2. Top 10 environmental problems Planet Earth Herald
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
views/

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

7. Top 10 environmental problems Conserve Energy Future
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
future.com/author/rinkesh

9. 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. 10 biggest global challenges World Economic Forum 2016
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

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

13. 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)

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

15. 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

16. 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?)
rockies-climate-change-spells-trouble-for-cutthroat-trout

17. 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

18. Be informed, not opinionated
Keep track of issues with reputable scientific sources
Earth & Sky due-to-human-activities
Christian Science Monitor skeptics-are-trying-to-influence science-teachers
NASA Earth Observatory

25. I want to recommend the video
and the website Seeds of a Good Anthropocene
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!

26. 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.

30. 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.