{EAV:015f07f58425743b}Conservationists often raise the point that their cause is overshadowed by trivia from popular culture. But how true is that?
Well, it is completely true, according to the results of Google searches for biodiversity compared with searches for celebrities. This graphic shows trends in Google search queries during 2011.
Colored lines represent relative search volume for different terms
The numbers on the graph represent relative search volume for each term. (The data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100.) On this scale, searches for any one of four popular celebrities dwarf the number of searches for biodiversity. Relative to searches for Justin Bieber, et al., the number of searches for biodiversity is essentially zero. Even if we take Britney Spears, whose star is fading, searches for her name during 2011 outnumber those of biodiversity by about 23 to 1. That is, for every person who searches for biodiversity, 23 are looking for information about Britney Spears. Popular culture is drowning interest in biodiversity with a deluge of information.
Google Insights graphic shows searches for biodiversity are outnumbered by searches for Britney Spears by about 23 to 1.
That’s an interesting result. But what does it mean? Do people care more about one rather mediocre pop singer than they do about the dwindling variety of life on the planet? If so, it’s a sad commentary on our view of the world.
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A simple yet powerful analysis showing how biodiversity isn’t in our cultural vocabulary yet. We need to raise more awareness into the importance of biodiversity. We need more efforts.