Please listen to this fragment of talk radio about climate change (a.k.a. global warming). Then label the fragment as "skeptical" (against mainstream science or climate action), "convinced" (supporting climate science or action), or "neither".

Here are some elements you can find in skeptical and convinced fragments:

Skeptical - "The evidence for climate change is false or not certain; predictions did not come true." "The climate is always changing, humans have no effect." "Problems we see today (e.g. wildfires) are not caused by climate change." "Climate change is not important compared to other problems." "It is too expensive or difficult to take action."

Convinced - "The evidence for climate change is clear." "Humans and their greenhouse gas emissions cause global warming." "Climate change will have bad effects (e.g. sea levels rising) now or later." "Problems we see today (e.g. storms) are due to global warming." "We need to act on it (e.g. by using less energy or clean energy), look for solutions and/or pass climate laws."

If the fragment does not have those elements, it may belong in the "neither" category:

Neither - Not enough context to classify the fragment, fragment does not fall into any of the other categories, or fragment is not about climate change. For example, a piece of news (with no negative or positive tone) about a law that was passed in Congress, or a commercial about climate-proofing your windows.

Note 1: fragments can be 'skeptical' and 'convinced' even if the speaker is not giving their own opinion. For example, a news item about new evidence for climate change would still count as convinced and not neutral, because its effect could be to make a listener more convinced.

Note 2: if the fragment includes a quote, as well as someone giving their opinion about the quote, please choose based on how that person feels about the quote. If no-one is giving an opinion about the quote, choose an answer based on the quote itself. For example, "The UN says that climate change is a threat" counts as convinced. But "Those idiots at the UN say that climate change is a threat" counts as skeptical.

If you encounter problems with this task, or the audio isn't working, please contact me (Clara Vandeweerdt) at claravdw@mit.edu.