The broader public is largely unaware of ocean acidification; yet, when provided with basic information about the issue they quickly become concerned.
This finding has its foundation in the national survey results, as supported by the on-site visitor intercepts. The national survey confirmed our sense that unaided awareness of ocean acidification is extremely low. On the aforementioned agreement scale (which runs from 1 [total disagreement] to 100 [total agreement]), the unaided score for “I have heard of the issue of ocean acidification” was a 14 for the public as a whole, rising only slightly to 19 when looking at recent visitors to a zoo, aquarium or museum, and to 31 when looking only at those who already claimed concern about climate change. (…)
Meyer D. & Mott B., 2014. Opportunities for communicating ocean acidification to visitors at informal Science Education Institutions. In Dalbotten D., Roehrig G. & Hamilton P., Future Earth: advancing civic understanding of the anthropocene, p. 99-102. Book chapter.
