CNN reporter visits Emery County to ask about global warming

By Patsy Stoddard
Editor

Emery County was visited by John D. Sutter an award winning columnist for CNN this past week. He is visiting the county to interview people to get their views on climate change/global warming. He was alerted to the fact that Emery County is a skeptical county on whether global warming is real or not.
According to a study conducted by Yale University climate department, Emery County residents are doubters. Forty-nine percent, roughly half of the adults in the county don’t believe in global warming. Which leaves half of the adults in the county that do believe in global warming.
Sutter came to Emery County for a week to investigate the skepticism of the residents here. He interviewed a number of people throughout the county to get their views on the subject. His objective was to hear where people are coming from on the subject.
Data supports the fact that the climate is warming. How much do people in Emery County trust those climate scientists? Sutter was interested in whether people here think about climate change. Would they like more information on climate change so they might form opinions? “If people have questions about the topic. If they are trying to understand it. I would like to hear where people are coming from,” said Sutter.
After Sutter had been in Emery County for a few days, he stopped by the Emery County Progress office. Sutter is currently living in Georgia and is originally from Oklahoma. He said he was enjoying his visit to Emery County. “It’s so beautiful here. I went on a tour of the San Rafael. I’ve talked to several people.”
One of the men Sutter talked to explained how the different rock formations came into existence. This person doubted whether people are causing any changes to the planet.
“I came here on a listening tour to hear people out, to better understand their views and how they form them. There are unique ways how they have formed their views. There are a lot of people who are skeptical. They don’t think it’s human caused. I talked to one person who believes firmly pollution is contributing to warming. There are other people with doubts.
“We went to the Wedge overlook, it’s a gorgeous scene. The man explained they find dinosaurs in what used to be swamp hundreds of millions of years ago, and now it’s a desert. The person said, ‘This planet is big and old. How could we be so arrogant to think we are changing the environment?’
“Some of the people have said they think it’s a conspiracy of people trying to make money off of it. Some say it’s politics and wanting to kill the coal industry.
“Climate scientists are in strong agreement that pollution is causing climate change. They are in agreement through studies that humans are largely responsible,” said Sutter.
“I’ve tried to be respectful. I am genuinely interested in what they believe and why. I recognize the sacrifice people here have made to create power for this country and that shouldn’t be ignored. I understand the decline in the coal industry and what it’s done to the economy here. It’s a big complicated topic (climate change) and hard to understand. There is confusion and questions here,” said Sutter.
Sutter thinks it might be a good idea if the people who are working on climate change and those who doubt there is climate change, maybe they should start talking to each other. Do people in Emery County discuss climate change and global warming much?
Sutter said he’s discovered that most of the people here are not talking about it at all. Some people have a firm belief there isn’t climate change. Other people are not sure. “I see a lack of interchange of information,” said Sutter.
Sutter said he has found the people of Emery County to be intelligent, thoughtful and considerate. “I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to visit with the people,” said Sutter.
Sutter said there is one thing he’s learned in Emery County that actually surprised him and he didn’t expect to find. As he was standing in that canyon in the natural environment, he saw how the views in Emery County have been shaped by the natural environment here. The earth is big and old and ever changing. “I didn’t expect that, it was really surprising,” said Sutter.
John D. Sutter is an award-winning columnist for CNN and creator of the network’s “2 degrees” project, which aims to involve readers in climate change coverage. Since joining CNN in 2009, Sutter has reported on a wide range of topics for the network, from income inequality to environmental justice and global human rights. His online story and documentary on Mauritania, the last country to abolish slavery, won the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists, as well as numerous other honors, including those from the Foreign Press Association, the Online News Association and Investigative Reporters and Editors. It received an EMMY nomination for new approaches to documentary film. Sutter’s work on the Change the List series, in which readers voted on social justice issues for him to cover, won the Batten Medal for public service journalism from the American Society of News Editors. His series on LGBT rights in Mississippi won the 2014 Al Neuharth Award for investigative reporting.
Sutter is a firm believer in involving readers and viewers in the storytelling process. He co-produced CNN iReport’s “Walk in our shoes” project, which was a collective walk around the world, filmed by CNN’s audience. It won a Webby Award in 2011. With help from readers, he live-tweeted a walk down the 17-mile path of a deadly tornado in 2013.
Previously, Sutter was a staff writer at The Oklahoman, where he covered Oklahoma City government and environmental issues. He also worked as a documentary film intern and freelancer in Madagascar and as a news intern at a daily newspaper in Cape Town, South Africa. He was a post-graduate fellow at the Poynter Institute. Sutter earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies and journalism from Emory University in 2005.