The document discusses a study analyzing the visual framing of climate control in the New York Times from 1851 to the present. It describes the three cycles of climate control coverage: 1851-1940 focused on rainmaking and ethics; 1940-2006 covered weather as a weapon and international agreements; and 2006-onward centered on geoengineering. The study analyzed 209 images from 25 articles in each cycle to identify common visual frames and how they have changed over time. It also examined the representation of scientists in media coverage and challenges in analyzing the subjective visual data.

1. The Visual Framing
of the Three Cycles of Climate Control
in in the New York Times (1851-Present)

2. Diesel Power, Source Interlink Media, 2008 to 2012
-Initiallty wanted to write about and build electric cars.
-Focused on mechanical hybrids, liquid fuels from the sun, advanced combustion.
-Communicated environmental messages to an unconcerned and environmentally
hostile audience. Hot Rod in 50’s returning G.I. same today.
-Wrote and photographed more than 350 articles and online content.
-New boss said I was too green.
-Supported carbon tax and green initiatives, feared ocean acidification, wanted more info
on climate change. I’m an environmentalist & BWCAW enthusiast.
-Undergraduate classes Dynamic Earth & MN Rocks and Waters; orbital effects made
me question man’s effect on climate change but even if wrong I thought OK since it was
for good cause (Pascal’s Wager).
3rd World Traveler Owen Lattimore
U.S.-Mongolian-Korean
Nepal Nepal-China-Bangladesh
Relations 1880-1930
William Appleman Williams
Winona State –Alex Yard
Energy=Human Right Imperialism Poverty Clean Air
Jason Thompson

3. Dr. Lachniet: “Paleoclimatology’s
Role in Enhanced Weathering”
Sonics + Distributed Power
Dr. Carlton: Business Organization Theory
“The Garbage Can Model of Decision
Making”
(Hart & Victor)
ICCC9 & NCES Conferences
Stephen Bates:
1st Amendment Law
“Regulating or Searching for Truth”
Dr. Kilker
Privacy & Surveillance
Panoptic Effect of CO2 & resource monitoring
Developing vs. developed =Failed Treaty
UNLV, MA JMS
Advisor: Dr. Lawrence Mullen
LV Rotary Club “Why Climate Models Fail”
slideshare:
BROOKINGS MOUNTAIN WEST | UNLV
By: Jason Thompson
For: William E. Brown Jr.
“Liquid Fuels vs. The Grid:
An Energy Policy Road Map to
Decentralization or Centralization”
Multi-Displinary Approach to Studying Climate Change
Method & Theory

4. Q: What is Journalism?
A: Communications produced by
journalists.
Q: Who are journalists? Who Should be?
A: Imbedded experts in
the science field or harvest
stories from experts and coach them.
Q: How can we make science journalists better?
A: Take a scientist and make her a journalist or
take a journalist and make her a scientist?
We need journalists to be experts
not Ron Burgundy.
Scientists are
people

5. “media exert considerable power on the public and political
agenda” and “may shape public understanding of topics…as
‘knowledge about science comes largely through mass media,
not through scientific publications or direct involvement in
science” (Scholte, Vasileiadou & Petersen, 2013, p. 2).
It is pictures rather than propositions, metaphors
rather than statements, which determine most of
our philosophical convictions.
(by ?)

6. Fleming’s history influenced climate geoengineering communication
professors like Mike Hulme, Kate Porter, Brigitte Nerlich, and Rusi Jaspal
who have all cited his historical work in their communication journal
articles. Nerlich and Hulme told me no visual analysis on this topic done
yet but is needed.
WHY
STUDY
Climate
Control?
JFK warned
against
weather
modification
last speech
NAS 1963
Operation
Popeye
UN
Intervention
Cycle 2
Not a new topic

7. WHAT?
“several of the biologists, oceanographers, and atmospheric scientists who
advised governments on the 1977 treaty to ban military uses of environmental
modification—the ENMOD convention—were enlisted to craft the first major
reports on anthropogenic climate change” (Hamblin, 2013, p. 10)

8. J. O. Fletcher argued that climate science
“must follow what he considered an
inevitable four-stage progression:
observation, understanding, prediction, and control”
(Fleming, 2010, p. 238).

9. Framing helps individuals “construct a
general statement regarding the
structure, or form, of experiences
individuals have at any moment of
their social life --Erving Goffman
Organizing Experience
A “code” is “a device which informs and patterns
all events that fall within the boundaries of its
application” (Goffman, 1974, p. 8).

10. the picture frame tells the viewer that he is not to use the
same sort of thinking in interpreting the picture that he
might use in interpreting the wallpaper outside the frame
--Gregory Bateson
(defined framing according to Irving Goffman as math set
theory and actual picture frame)
“The major problems in the world are the
result of the difference between how
nature works and the way people think”
― Gregory Bateson

11. Bateson gave LSD to Allen Ginsberg re-directing
environmentalism.
Married to Margret Mead who wrote Atmosphere
Endangered & Endangering with NIH

12. 1. Only 8% of the Public Correctly Identified Geoengineering
3. Text And Climate Change Gets More Attention Than
Visuals and Geoengineering/Climate Control 1st Study!
2. One of the main goals of the discussion in the IPCC
reports is to “take into account the possible impacts
and side effects and their implications for mitigation
cost in order to define the role of geoengineering
within the portfolio of response options to
anthropogenic climate change.” (IPCC, 2011)

13. Cycle 1: 1851-1940(Rainmaking & Ethics
Cycle 2: 1940-2006 (Weather as War / UN/Environment)
Cycle 3: 2006-2014 (Geoengineering)
1. War
2. People
3. Fix
4. Impacts
The Three Cycles of Climate Control (Fleming)
The Four
FramesThe search words included “climate control”,
“geoengineering”, “climatic change”, “weather control”,
“climate change”, “climate warfare”, “rainmaking” and
“climate modification” in ProQuest & Lexis-Nexis
Sampling
Unit of
Analysis:
Just
images in
Articles

14. Research Questions
• What types of visual frames can be found in The
New York Times to describe geoengineering? If any.
• What is the most and least occurring frame?
• Do the frames occur most and least during
specific years, decades, or other events?
• Is the Down’s Issue Attention Cycle present?
• Are there more scientists represented in the past
or more recent media reports?
(Trumbo says science has left the building)

19. People Frame
Most prevalent
In Visual Climate
Change
Research
(O’Neill and
Smith, 2014)
Fix frame
symbolized with
tools and
anthropogenic
artifacts
1
2
3
4
5

20. I think: We need to communicate more science
in order to have more effective science
communication. Deficit model
Current Science
communication paradigm: Says
less science is better focus on
the values and beliefs.

21. Results
209 images
25 articles from each cycle

22. Challenges & Problems
Black and White 1851-1993
Color 1993
Various definitions used by various
parties.
Intercoder reliability was at
Validity had issues since it
was subjective.

23. The accord itself is weak mainly
because it does not contain any
commitments by the developed
countries to cut their emissions
in the medium term. Perhaps the
reason for this most glaring
omission is that the national
pledges so far announced
amount to only a 11-19% overall
reduction by the developed
countries by 2020 (compared to
1990), a far cry from the over
40% target demanded by the
developing countries and recent
science.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009copenhagenclimate/2010
-01/01/content_9254892.htm
http://www.scie
ncedaily.com/ar
ticles/a/air_poll
ution.htm
The World Health
Organization
estimates that 4.6
million people die
each year from
causes directly
attributable to air
pollution.