DiluzjExam



Joseph DiLuzio Sustainability Problems: Final Exam 12/9/2011 Corporations present a large force in the way of sustainability efforts. Often times, the cheaper and more profitable solutions are ones that involves amoral and unsustainable practices. This is evident in the outsourcing of labor costs to nations with questionable labor laws, such as China and other Asian nations, where slave wages are commonly known to happen. The film //The Corporation// shows this with its in depth coverage of case studies of corporate malpractice and corruption. One such example focuses on the Monsanto Corporation, a chemical producer, which produced a bovine growth hormone that was meant to increase milk production. This hormone also had horrid adverse effects on the cows, and would transfer into humans through the consumption of the milk. This initial fact is enough to see how Monsanto was a bad company, either incompetent at safety regulations, or callous towards health and safety when there is money to be made. What was detailed next, however, was that Monsanto threatened news anchors that stumbled onto the story in order to keep the information quiet. This made it obvious that Monsanto’s unsustainable practices were not accidents, but deliberate cutting of corners in order to turn a profit. This core need to maximize profit is one of the major reasons why corporations turn to unsustainable and corrupt actions. When given the opportunity to make a large profit through amoral loopholes or government oversights, a corporation is required by their stockholders to seize the opportunity and maximize the return on investment of the investors. Again from the film //The Corporation//, there was a scene that covered the story of a CEO of a major corporation, Shell I believe it was, who was encountered at home by frustrated protesters calling him a murderer for the things his corporation was responsible for. Upon further inquiry and discussion by the CEO and the protestors, they found out that the things that the protestors were concerned about, such as health, ethics, the environment, and corruption, were things that the CEO was also very passionate about, and yet his actions were controlled by the needs and demands of the many stockholders that invested in his company. Another great example of how corporations manage to counter the sustainability efforts is the George C. Marshall Institute, which is centered on the idea of spreading counter-information against whatever information is bad for whoever is providing their funding. Over the past 20 years, the major funders of the Institute were the major oil companies, and the GMI consequently is where the majority of the claims of confusion and discontinuity in the scientific community over the issue of climate change come from. I believe this example is also from the film //The Corporation//; however I cannot confirm it at this time. Definitely from //The Corporation//, however, is the fact that corporations as people is another huge sustainability issue, as it gives them legal rights to donate to political candidates and is a major source of corruption. This issue stems from the 1886 blunder that was the case of Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad, where the court reporter misreported that the corporations were ruled people legally. This fact has been referenced in 288 court cases, between 1890 and 1910, arguing that under the 14th amendment, corporations have all the rights under the first amendment that people do. This creates the opportunity for a corporation to donate funds as a person, only with a much larger purse to give from; they therefore have an unfair influence over the say of whichever politician they buy.
 * 1) **1. ****Identify ways that corporations are a sustainability problem, referencing at least four examples from films you watched this semester. **

The sustainability problem with advertising is in the resulting effect it has been proven to have on our population. Advertising in American has grown to the point of absurdity both in quantity and in the invasiveness of the ads. In //The Persuaders//, it was said that consumers are building up a tolerance against advertisements, and that the marketers have to either make more and more ads to get across the same message, or they would have to find alternative methods of advertising. These alternative methods include the use of product placement in your everyday life without your knowledge. In the same film, a product placement example was given of hiring everyday looking people to walk down the street talking about a new shop, and advertising it through an outlet that is perceived by the consumer as the “buzz on the street” so to speak, and has long been trusted by consumers to be a way of critically analyzing a product. If you see commercials on TV for this new store, but your coworkers have nothing good to say about it, the advertisements have failed; however when the advertisement //is// the coworkers, then the realm of influence the marketing industry has over your everyday decisions gets much larger. This increase in advertisements has led to an increase in consumerism past the point where it is a sustainable practice. Advertisers would love it if you were to buy their product, promptly throw it away, and buy a newer version of the product. The faster you do this, the more successful the advertisement has been. This cycle of short term consuming is the source of vast mountains of landfills, gyers of plastic, and rivers of pollution. There is hope however, with the introduction of the idea of “communication for commerce”, which could help by creating value in a product and a desire to have a product last longer. The idea that if you can make a product have an emotional attachment to the consumer, then the consumer will care more if the product is lost or broken, and therefore want it found or fixed, rather than discarding it and buying a replacement. Through this building of attachment, the vicious cycle of short term consuming can be countered, and the increase of waste and pollution can be slowed, making clean up easier. This ability for advertisers to create an emotional attachment could have a drastic effect in the other direction if the attachment is made between a consumer and a certain company, which could lead to the “loyalty beyond reason” effect demonstrated in the film //The Persuaders//. The development of this loyalty could lead consumers to stop thinking critically about the products they buy. Once consumers are loyal to a certain company, they will continue to buy that company’s goods despite the existence of a better alternative, or a lack of a need to purchase the goods. A good example of this is in Apple’s marketing campaign, which created an army of loyal Mac fans and IPod fans that will continue to buy the newest model each year because the marketing machine has said it was better. With a new IPod coming out each year and a new MacBook coming out every other year, the amount of electronic and plastic waste that this blind consumerism creates is unsustainable. I believe that the use of these effective marketing techniques could lead to change for the better if it were to be used by sustainability activists. Hopefully with the growth of sustainability, people will make their own decision to cut down advertisements and invasive marketing techniques all together.
 * 1) **2. ** **Describe how the advertising industry a sustainability problem. Discuss the environmental implications of “communication for commerce,” the effort to create emotional connections between consumers, commodities and companies, and the cultivation of “loyalty beyond reason” (//The Persuaders//). Also discuss whether sustainability advocates should borrow techniques from the adverting industry to advance //their// message. **


 * 1) **3. ****Discuss how Internet communication and other forms of new media are sustainability problems, as well as a means to sustainability solutions. **

With the development of the internet, the world was suddenly and immensely changed seemingly overnight. The ability for people to share information at increasingly fast speeds, over increasing distances, has led to the creation of thousands upon thousands of global activist movements, grass roots political uprisings, and the toppling of fascist regimes that fight to keep their people ignorant. In this way, the internet is a major source of the sustainability movement worldwide, and without it, there would be massive setbacks globally in the fight for a sustainable world. The internet, and communication systems like it such as text messaging, cellphones, and mobile devices, has also lead to many new sustainability problems, due to the improper foresight of the companies, and the inherent freedom of this new information age. The need for instant gratification has been growing in recent generations due to the ability of modern technology to deliver information at near instant speeds. The development of email has replaced “snail mail”, and the thought of having to wait a week or more for a letter, check, package, or bill to arrive has become a hindrance in the modern fast paced life style. The creation of mobile phones has led to the average businessman being on call 24/7, and people expecting to be able to instantly reach any of their friends, wherever they are, and whatever they are doing. This destruction of privacy and having time to be disconnected form the world, can lead to increased stress and stress related illness. With this increasing trend in instant gratification, there has also been a documented decrease in attention span of the younger generations. Many people today prefer the internet to the library, and skimming headlines sent to their mobile devices rather than reading the full article in a newspaper. This short attention span and lack of thoroughness will no doubt start having long term effects on the ability of people to critically analyze and thoroughly research topics. Most of these facts are derived from my own experience, and as such I cannot claim that these studies are concrete, but I have definitely noticed a decrease in my ability to sit down and read a long article or chapters in a good old fashioned paper book. I have taken steps to force myself to counteract this unfortunate event; however its existence should raise alarm bells that the high speed information age has had adverse effects with long term implications.


 * 1) **4. ****Identify key characteristics of the best environmental media (recognizing that few films or other media are likely to have more than a few of these characteristics). Reference examples from films we’ve seen this semester. **

In order to make an educational, effective, and credible environmental documentary, it is important you have several key characteristics. The film should contain hard facts and scientific information, preferably presented by a credible source. It should be careful in using sarcasm or satirical commentary, as it is very difficult to pull this off without making the commentary seem cheap and detrimental to the cause it is trying to promote. Additionally, the film should not be ridiculously overdone in its presentation of facts, or its attempts to scare the viewer. Finally, the film should always end with the presentation of possible solutions, or the discussion as to why solutions are hard to come up with. Lacking these qualities, a film loses power and effect on the target audience. A great example of a film with effective evidence and credible sources would be the film //The End of the Line//, which cited case studies of fish extinction, global numbers of fish populations, graphically represented this data in easy to read charts and maps. Many of the films we saw this semester did a good job of presenting facts and figures, however there are a few that we watched that did a poor job. //Homo Toxicus// did a good job presenting case studies, but when it came to talking about scientific information and statistics, it did a poor job with providing visuals. Through the use of film, it is important to take advantage of powerful visuals to accompany hard numbers and statistics to help the viewer both conceptualize the information, and retain it. //Homo Toxicus// also suffered from the use of too much sarcasm and “cheesy” effects, such as the scene where the narrator has a panic attack in her bathroom and her skin turns green. These gimmicky visuals combined with the sarcastic comments made about Health Canada detract from the credibility of the film and leave the impression that the documentary was made by someone with a much skewed view on the topic. It is important to give the viewer the impression that the information that is being presented is a real sustainability issue, and not an overreaction by an outlier. Similarly, the film //The Yes Men Fix the World//, danced along the line of satire which has lead it to controversy over whether or not the film effectively helped the sustainability movement, or if the film instead caused a setback by smearing the credibility of environmental educational media. A good example of a film that poorly presented material was the film //6 Degrees Could Change the World//. In this film, the presentation of information was very over-the-top and the sources of information were questionable. Even during the film, the narrator said multiple times that changes above 3 degrees Celsius are hard to predict and the most scientists could do were give vague guesses. This narrative was followed by rather detailed dooms day stories of what //could// happen in a world of increased average temperature. This presentation of possibilities, maybes, and over dramatic apocalyptic scenarios does provide the viewer with the level of importance; however when done to this extreme, it also causes the viewer to stop taking the documentary seriously and could lead to the viewer discounting the facts presented in the film. The most important part of an environmental documentary is that it ends with a solution. If there is any key characteristic that a documentary needs, it is this ending. The presentation of possible alternatives to the doom and gloom presented from the warning nature of environmental films lets the viewer leave the film without a feeling of helplessness, and instead inspires the audience to make the necessary changes.

> The debate over the role of comedy news in America’s understanding of current events is a debate we had earlier this semester. The key components of the argument were over whether or not comedy news, such as John Stewart, adds to the average American’s comprehension of the national news. The debate ended up hinged on the issue of whether or not comedy news takes the news so out of context there is nothing left to learn, or if it in fact is meant to be a satire of the news, instead of a satire of the events in the news, and therefore the fact things are taken out of context would not detract from the critique. In the case of John Stewart, arguably, one of the best political satirists of our era, he understands that his show should not be a substitute for real news, but rather that his show exercises the journalistic muscles that allow him to put the glaring fallacies of the current system into the spotlight. The role of comedy news, or political satire of any sort, is not to give an alternative method of keeping up with current events, but rather to counter the massive spin and obscurantic news stories of mainstream media. It is vital to the gathering of knowledge on a topic to be able to identify bias and understand where the information is coming from, as well as be able to identify conflicting stories. It is the critical analysis of these stories that allows us to form our own opinions on matters, and gives rise to a general populous that is educated and informed on the current issues. With a rising trend of mainstream media being controlled by corporate or political interests, it is important that satirical shows such as John Stewart’s //Daily Show// calls out the worked facts and the skewed information in case the viewer missed it, and to help counter the manipulation of the public into believing disingenuous stories. When John Stewart says that he is a “soil enricher”, I believe he is referring to this clarification of the news, which allows people to formulate their own opinions based on the real facts and real stories. Although there is always a comedic spin on the //Daily Show//, the spin is obvious and easily dissected, instead of the hidden spin that is put onto the mainstream media news stations. By watching Stewart’s show, you default to analyzing what he says in order to understand the joke, and it is that critical analysis skill that are cultivated and grown by ourselves when we take them and try and apply them to the standard broadcasts. Personally, I never liked the news, but then I started watching the //Daily Show// and the //Colbert Report//, and was inspired to start watching the real news stations in order to better understand the jokes I heard on the comedy news shows. From this process, I developed critical analysis skills that help me better access national current events. > In order to promote public awareness and commitment to environmental sustainability, I propose the following 10 laws and public movements be enacted promptly and strictly. Firstly, the addition into the standard school process and curriculum of education on civics and current events, as well as structured debates, in order to increase awareness of the issues and critical thinking about these issues. This program would be best taught during the first few years of a high school curriculum, to prepare students for voting once coming of age, which typically happens in their senior year. By developing these skills in each subsequent generation, situations where politicians push through acts or pass laws unnoticed can be minimized. The second law would be a ban on politicians and elected officials from being able to own stock in any major corporation or company to prevent the conflict of interest that it would entail. When you become elected into office means that you are now a symbol of the people, and must be trusted to be the representative voice of your followers to others outside of your community. The sacrifice of the personal liberties of being able to own stock in companies should be seen as a tradeoff for the political power your office gives you. By allowing influences from outside sources, such as private organizations and private funding, you are sacrificing the voice of the people. The third law would be to ban corporations from being able to make political contributions. This loophole abusive practice has led to corruption of politicians afraid of losing their funding and this trend will continue as long as money is such an influential force in our society. A major part of this law would be to strip corporations of their right to personhood, and therefore the legal entity’s human rights. The fourth law would be pertaining to the legality of the privatization of water and the right of affordable access to clean water. Concerning this, the first part of the law would be to establish the right of affordable clean water as a human right protected under the constitution, and the second part would be that acts meant to deliberately undermine the quality of public drinking water, the act of exporting water for private gain, and the destruction of aquifers unconstitutional. The fifth law would require media outlets that are considered a “news” source to provide at the end of every major segment (before / after commercial break) to give a disclaimer saying who their major funder is. For example, “This story on climate change brought to you by Major Oil Company, Inc.” It is the intent of this law to show where any biases in the information presented might be coming from. The sixth law would be intended to stop the creation of jobs in the markets of public relations, on the basis of multiple acts of manipulation of the public into the compliance and ignorance around issues of global significance. Whenever a PR firm spreads disinformation in an attempt to dull the edge of the critique’s sword on their client’s empire, they are effectively dumbing down the public and hiding truth. The seventh law would be to regulate corporations and companies into a level of transparency sufficient enough for the average consumer to see the corporate structure that the company uses, including the life cycle of the product, the location of all the companies manufacturing plants, the names of suppliers, and any health or safety violations that those factories are responsible for. This is meant to reattach consumers to the products they buy and where the goods come from. The eighth law would be to require any news source be legally bound to present only the truth, and be required to publically correct any information found out to be incorrect. This would be to counter the appeal of Fox News to rescind whistleblower status to one of their employees on the grounds that lying on the air was not illegal. A station that has dedicated themselves to news should be forbidden from fabricating or deliberately obscuring the truths. The ninth law would be to add a course on sustainability to the grade school curriculum in order to teach an understanding of the basics of a sustainable world. The idea of infinite resources and infinite growth in a finite world needs to be countered at an early age, preferably before a citizen becomes eligible to vote on issues. Finally, the tenth law would be to change the way our advertisement system works on television. The law would require that all advertisements be put after a program as played. For entertainment programs and educational programs and by this I mean programs that have a continuous plot line and only run for a certain time slot, the advertisements would be aired only after the program as finished.
 * 1) **5. ****In a 2010 NY Magazine article, Jon Stewart describes his media team as "Soil enrichers. Maybe we can add a little fertilizer to the soil so that real people can come along and grow things.” What does Stewart mean, and how persuaded are you by the metaphor? The NY Magazine article is "America is a Joke" **
 * 1) **6. ****Identify ten developments (in education, law, media, etc) that you think would help mobilize greater public awareness of and commitment to environmental sustainability. **

> In the teaching of high school students about the major controversies over environmental policies, it is important that they understand the basics of the science behind the controversy. To this effect, the first thing I would teach in the class is the watered down, simple as possible explanation of the creation of natural gas in shale rock. After they understand how the gas is formed, contained, and why it is located in the shale rock layer of the earth’s crust, I would teach them why we pursue it, and why it is seen as a better, cleaner burning source of fuel; by showing them in scientific studies, or doing small experiments themselves. After giving them this basic understanding of what natural gas is and why it is desired, I would have a project in the class requiring the students to research methods of extracting this natural gas, and charge them to find the most economical solution, including an analysis on the national economy and the global economy, and task them to take on the role of a business leader. After this project, which would include presentations of the extracting pitches to the class, I would prompt them to do an environmental analysis of their extraction method, and task them with doing a full analysis on the process used. This would be another research project, and would require them to cite scholarly sources to determine public health risks, ecological risks, and risk to employee. This process would be as detailed as possible, but the point of the second research topic would be to get them thinking about the risk analysis of the attaining this resource. After this presentation has most likely led them to reconsider their initial design, and identify the large health and safety risks that arise when designing at the most economical level, I would task them with finding a middling ground which would balance the risk to human and ecological health with the cost to operate and the economic effect their second iteration of extraction method would have. By requiring them to balance risk, they would hopefully develop an understanding of why this debate is not as cut and dry as any one article would make it seem. The students would learn about the vastness of risk balancing, and at the end of the semester, I would task them with a final report of their findings and what they feel would be the best approach to the mining of natural gas, or the stopping of said mining all together. The skills learned in this process of step by step analysis, each step going deeper into the problems with a solution to the previous step’s problem, the class would teach the students the base skills they need to critically analyze an environmental issue or debate. Namely, that no solution is truly perfect, and you should always look into the possible problems with a proposed solution. Through this critical nature, students should be encouraged to research the sources of information to see what issues are most important to the author of the solution.
 * 1) **7. ****Imagine that you are teaching high school seniors about environmental controversies. How would you advise them to make sense of the controversy around hydrofraking for natural gas? What questions would you encourage them to ask in analyzing all environmental controversies they encounter? In answering this question, you can draw on news accessible here: ** ** [] . **


 * 1) **8. ****<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Write a 400-word biosketch that describes where you will be and what you will have accomplished twenty years from now. The biosketch should be narrative rather than resume style. Include basic biographical and educational information, the expertise you have built and have become known for, and a brief description of important projects you have been a part of over this period of time. For an example, see the Wikipedia entry for Paul Farmer ( ****<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> []  <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">) **

Joseph R. DiLuzio (born January 26th, 1990) is an American product designer with a passionate focus on sustainability. He is currently head of his own company, DiLuzio Designs, which is outsourced by companies to turn their products sustainable. He currently owns the patents on well over a dozen sustainable designs and products in the fields of energy, education, and entertainment. Formerly, he was a head design engineer at the major aerospace engineering corporation, Goodrich Aerospace, where he helped redesign the way air, land, sea, and space craft stabilize their orientation, replacing the classic gyroscope. He is currently a chair on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute board of directors, where he is a strong advocate for the green initiative that drove the Institute to its zero carbon footprint status. He currently resides in Los Altos, California, where his studio is located. DiLuzio is the co-founder of the non-profit organization Plaîzhöldr Foundation, an international effort to clean up the corruption and cut through the political confusion that is the American political system. In 2025, Mr. DiLuzio was named Person of the Year in Time Magazine for his work in the fields of sustainability and design. He assisted Unpossible Games in the creation of a video game, //Think Faster//, revolutionized the video game industry by turning video games into an effective environmental educational tool, and won the Independent Games Festival Nuovo Award in 2018. Joseph DiLuzio is also a major contributor to the global efforts to clean up the plastic trash gyres. He is an active member of the global movement to halt the fishing industry and establish aquatic sanctuaries to allow the regrowth of our marine ecosystem. In 2020, he successfully fought to overrule the Supreme Court case granting corporations the rights of people. In 2028 he was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship for his outstanding work in the fields of global sustainability efforts. In 2025, he made a donation of $2.5 million to his alma mater, RPI, with the explicit purpose of being used to take the school off the grid and set up an art exhibit in a lecture hall devoted to sustainability history.


 * 1) **<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif;">9. ****<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Describe the key message of ** //**<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">6 Degrees Could Change the World **//**<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">, providing illustrative examples from the film, then evaluate its strategy and effectiveness as environmental media. **

In the environmental film series, //6 Degrees Could Change the World//, a National Geographic publication; the world is examined at elevated global average temperatures. The world currently rests at around 0.8°C above the historical record. The film’s main argument is that if efforts are not made to counter this rise in the global average, global catastrophes will begin to become more and more frequent. The film increases the global thermostat 1 degree at a time until the theoretical temperature reaches a startling 6°C above the historical record. The film starts with the increasing melting of the polar ice caps, leading to an increase in global sea level and freak hurricanes and droughts are becoming more and more common in areas previously untouched by these disasters. At 2°, the world was depicted as having an increasingly disappearing polar glacier presence as well the glaciers in Greenland and coral reefs in the pacific are beginning to disappear. At 3° the weather patterns of El Niño become the standard weather, with dramatic class 6 hurricanes becoming a yearly event. The increasing heat and drought causes the Amazon rainforest to die out, leading to a self-feeding chain reaction. Above 4°, the weather continues to become more and more apocalyptic, and the science continues to become more and more unclear. The only clear result is that the effects will start to compound on each other, leading to a synergy which will speed the reaction and cause the end of times as we know them. The general strategy of this film is that of a Hollywood movie more than an educational documentary. The level of overdone dramatic presentation of scientific theories of destruction as scare tactics meant to teach the audience the error of inaction becomes more comical then frightening with the level of ridiculous speculation based on a large number of unknowns. Although the film may have had a good strategy in the attempt to scare the audience into action, however they went a few steps too far with the presentation of cheesy CGI to represent the doomsday scenarios, and an impressive lack of hard facts, figures, and scientists offering real information. The lack of weight behind the statements made in this film greatly detracts from the overall effectiveness of it as an educational environmental media. The film should have focused more on the parts of it that employed the current events of global climate shifts as examples of how the dramatic escalation in the global average temperature could lead to these issues expanding and spreading.
 * 1) **10.** **<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many Americans are skeptical about climate change, and climate science. What do you think explains the skepticism? What do you think scientists should do to further enroll the public in concern about climate change? The articles listed below will provide material for your argument. Reference both articles in your answer. **

Americans have a very high wall to climb in order to overcome the misinformation that plagues us. “Americans often are very selective about which sources of information they trust; they have incomplete, often oversimplified information; they don’t believe individual actions will make a difference; and/or they believe climate change won’t ever affect them or the people they know.” [1] The skepticism in America around climate change and climate science is best explained by the fact that the actual major impacts of climate change vary drastically by location, and thusly the residents of a small town in Kentucky are less likely to care about climate change then a coastal town at risk of increasing hurricane strength and frequency, as well as rising tides. Referring to a study to this effect, “Zahran argues that this study shows how difficult it is for the United States as a whole to take action on a problem when individuals in one area perceive their burden to be disproportionate to that of others in the country. “ [1] The disconnect between national citizenry is a major force against the large numbers and statistics that scientists use to demonstrate the big issues of climate change. Even though we are told that the icecaps are shrinking or that the world is decertifying, it is hard to feel the connection between those distant events and me driving my car to work as opposed to taking an extra hour or more to use the horribly designed mass transit system. The fact the world is decertifying is hard for a resident of New England to see when water is still in ample supply. This is drastically different to the very real decertifying of Texas, as they enter their worst drought in history. The general lack of a national consensus on the matter is due mostly to this lack of a national geographic effect. There is not an imminent, universal, national disaster that would affect every citizens of the USA drastically enough for us to reach enough of an agreement to grease the wheels of political action. Additionally, there is a growing agreement between citizens that the issue of climate change has become largely political, and therefore there is little their individual actions can do to change things. From //The Perception Factor//; “This has been exceedingly well established in data … that political ideology and some deeply held worldviews related to political identity are currently the biggest factors that determine a person’s view of climate change.”, Maibach” In order to convince the populous that the issue of climate change is real, non-conflicted, uncontested, and urgent, it is very important that the scientists perfect their communication skills. The study referenced in the article __Heroes Wanted in Climate Science Story__, from //USA Today// in 2010, shows that the role of a good story in the presentation of new information is to aid in the retention of the information. Without a good story, the information is simply not stored as well, and the individual does retain the information long enough for it to make a significant impact on them. Additionally, with an inability to relate the information given, the facts just roll off the listener and fail to sink in and strike a nerve. The issue scientists are having at reaching the public with their warning message is the lack of a story, and therefore the one thing that scientists can do when presenting information to an audience, is to tailor the delivery of the information, without altering or clouding the facts presented, to the audience’s most likely motivators. "Simple stories with likeable heroes are the most effective, they make people overlook incongruent things in the narrative," Jones says. "Obviously, this has implications across a lot of areas." [2] For example, using the 4 stories given in the //USA Today// article you could tailor the presentation of climate change awareness presentations to focus on the specific heroes that the demographic you are speaking too most closely relates too.

<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">[1] *The Perception Factor: Climate Change Gets Personal. (Environmental Health Perspectives, 11/1/2010)

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<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt;">[2] *Heroes wanted in climate science story (USA Today, 11/20/2010)

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