There's an awareness of conspicuous consumption. Why is the article 'an' needed before awareness when awareness is an uncountable noun?

Question

1.There's an awareness of conspicuous consumption. Why is the article "an" needed before awareness when awareness is an uncountable noun?

Greenpeace works to promote awareness of the dangers that threaten our planet today.Why is the article 'an' omitted in the sentence before awareness?

2.I think they just need an awareness. In this sentence how is awareness countable?

3.There is a growing awareness of the seriousness of this disease.

In the above sentence, if there are different levels of awareness like a growing awareness, a falling awareness, or a rising awareness, so the use of articles is natural in its context as we can count it

4.The campaign has certainly succeeded in raising public awareness of the issue.

In the above sentence, why don't we use the article 'a' before the "public awareness" as there can be different kinds of awareness like public awareness, environmental awareness etc.

Answer 1

The word "awareness" can be used either with or without an article.

If you use the article "a/an", then you are stressing the point that it's "one of many". "We want to promote an awareness of this (but not of that)." A specific type of awareness, among various choices.

If you don't use the article "a/an", then you are de-emphasizing the idea that there are various choices. This is appropriate if you are focusing attention on one type of awareness, and aren't concerned about comparing it to others.