EXCERPTS FROM GALLUP – complete poll story here
PRINCETON, NJ — Although a majority of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is either correctly portrayed in the news or underestimated, a record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject.
As recently as 2006, significantly more Americans thought the news underestimated the seriousness of global warming than said it exaggerated it, 38% vs. 30%. Now, according to Gallup’s 2009 Environment survey, more Americans say the problem is exaggerated rather than underestimated, 41% vs. 28%.
The trend in the “exaggerated” response has been somewhat volatile since 2001, and the previous high point, 38%, came in 2004. Over the next two years, “exaggerated” sentiment fell to 31% and 30%. Still, as noted, the current 41% is the highest since Gallup’s trend on this measure began in 1997.
…
Notably, all of the past year’s uptick in cynicism about the seriousness of global warming coverage occurred among Americans 30 and older. The views of 18- to 29-year-olds, the age group generally most concerned about global warming and most likely to say the problem is underestimated, didn’t change.
http://www.grist.org/news/2009/03/11/tax/index.html?source=twitter
From the above link we get this from James Hansen:
“If it’s going to be cap and trade, I’d rather nothing came out of Copenhagen. I’d rather take another year and two and get it right.”
What would work, he argues, is a direct tax — as close to the source as possible — on fossil fuels. “A carbon tax is the mechanism that allows you to make an international agreement globally effective in a short period of time,” he said.
[end]
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait…a…minute. I thought we didn’t have another year or two to “wait and get it right.” I mean, that’s what we get told all the time. If we don’t do something NOW, we’re all going to die from an overheated and exhausted planet. How many years now has it been that we’ve been told we have to do something? And exactly what has happened since then? By the way, if we do end up doing something and the Earth survives what then? Do the Greens get credit for what would have happened anyway? And if Earth gets warmer via natural processes, what then? Will we have to cut back even more, provided there is anything left to cut back on, in another push to “save the planet”? Apparently we have plenty of time as long as we are talking about following through on the flawed Green theolo..uh..ideology. But if we’re not, then suddenly it’s guns and thunder, and all hell is going to break lose in five seconds unless we all “do” something. Ha!
I have the image in my mind of DJ typing in his post, then putting his hands over his eyes, so as not to read any response to his post. He is firmly entrenched in his beliefs. There are none so blind, ……
[snip – political minefield]
Robinson (14:07:33) : The very organ that hosts Christopher Booker has posted another idiotic scientific prediction on rising sea levels, along with an oh so dramatic photograph of the Houses of Parliament under water!
Clicked the link, read the story. ZERO comments… Hmmm…. post a comment poking fun at the idea and pointing out the recent cold and snow. Nothing…
Now it could just be a bug… but it sure smelled like someone catching a raft of it from cold folks shoveling snow an deciding to just black hole the “feedback” 😉 LMAO…
Smith:
Your link is to Maslow at wiki, but the link from there to the list is at the bottom of the page. Interesting hierarchy. Looks like there’s some truth there.
“Phil’s Dad (16:31:22) :
The politics will change the split second those lines cross; but at the current rate that will not be for another eight years. ”
I suppose if documentaries like The Great Global Warming Swindle and Doomsday Called Off were shown on tv a few times the rate would speed up.
Looks like the BBC is coming to the party as well… at last an admission that temps are not going up anymore and that people are realizing this….Attacks by the AGW’s (who still believe) are looking rather ridiculous.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7929174.stm
Dorlomin (14:00:55) :
A country that gives the world a creationist museum with dinosaurs walking with Adam doesnt ‘believe’ in global warming.
Clearly Dorlomin, you haven’t been keeping up – all this was conclusively proved by Fred Flintstone and Dino, with no less credibility than the following statements by UK media, below.
My favorite:
“How to spot climate change deniers” – no doubt followed by instructions on how to stone these Climate Lepers, or “Clepers”…
Keep smiling all, Allan
darwin (14:02:52) :
Here’s the viewpoint of the UK media (all today 11 March 2009):
The Independent:
– Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted
– Carbon cuts only give 50/50 chance of saving planet
-Deforestation: the hidden cause of global warming
The Guardian
– Amazon could shrink 85% due to climate change
– US carbon cuts could spark revolution
– Climate change transforming rainforests into major carbon emitters
– Warming may trigger carbon time bomb
– Climate crunch heralds end of history
– How to spot climate change deniers
– Stern: Climate change deniers are flat-earthers
And the impartial BBC
– Acidic seas fuel extinction fears
– Sea rise to exceed projections
Bobby Lane (21:00:18) :
http://www.grist.org/news/2009/03/11/tax/index.html?source=twitter
From the above link we get this from James Hansen:
“If it’s going to be cap and trade, I’d rather nothing came out of Copenhagen. I’d rather take another year and two and get it right.”.
He believes, and it is true, that cap and trade will take too long for his alarm to sub bate .
I think that these people who believe that CO2 will be even diminished by taxing should be given a D on economics 101 and psychology 101.
Unless a viable alternative energy source is put into effect in parallel and before any taxation the only thing that will happen with direct taxation is a hiccup, and with cap and trade the lining of Gore et al pckets and not even a hiccup in the CO2 climb. Unless the taxes are in real blood money.
This is evident for the amount of money we in Europe pay to use our cars 4 euro a gallon or so . Both the rich north and the poor south pay the money that is necessary to go from A to B. When it becomes more expensive, they cut out an outing, or delay buying a new coat. It has to become enormously more expensive to start walking and biking if you do not like walking and biking to work. A few hundred dollars will not do it.
No wonder I’m reading yet another “scare me” story about the oceans rising even faster than the IPCC predicted (again). They must’ve seen this poll and figured it was time to release another threat.
Looking at the graph in the headline post, I think I see an anti-correlation with temperature, with a bit of lag due to media inertia.
I expect an unprecedented exponential runaway tipping point in sentiment will occur soon after cap and trade is enacted.
When I read the part where they said:
“Americans generally believe global warming is real. That sets the U.S. public apart from the global-warming skeptics who assembled this week in New York City to try to debunk the science behind climate change.”
Blood literally shot out of my eyes. This is such a distortion that I cannot even begin to explain how wrong it is. Ugh!!!
Merrick (15:26:30) :
A small point. but worth making for the sake of clarity.
Your name was invented——– (The name belongs to you.) Possessive
You’re name was invented—— (You are a name.)
Vital, yes?
DJ (13:30:28) :
The laws of physics won’t change just because a group of non-experts have been confused by the misapplication of media norms.
The laws of physics won’t change because a clique of computer programmers have been confused by the misapplication of data and parameters either.
That number will surely increase drmatically once cap & trade is heralded in.
Well, here’s a comment from today’s Independent in the UK showing someone of the opposite opinion:
‘As I indicated just yesterday, there will be many more dire predictions that will have to be revised upwards as the situation rapidly worsens.
However I’n sure it will be ‘ Here we go again’; another opportunity for the so-called sceptics to tell us that carbon dioxide does not cause global warming (despite Tyndal and Ahrenius working that out well over a 100 years ago), another chance to say that the Earth is actually cooling (but if were to be warming, that would be due to a change in the Sun’s activity), another opportunity for them to say that a higher carbon dioxide level will be good for the planet because it would promote plant growth, a chance to say that telling the thruth is ‘being alarmist’, a chance for so-called sceptics to demand more research instead of action, and another opportunity for the ‘there is still time to act’ brigade to promote technologies that have been shunned for the past 40 years.
The idea of putting on a seat belt before driving a car or taking a life jacket on a trip in a small boat seems completely alien to a large section of the contributors to this forum and to all politiicans and business leaders.
The Precautionary Principle indicates: Don’t do it unless you sure its safe. The globalised consumer society says: Just keep doing it -keep burning oil and coal, keep adding CO2 and other poillutants to the atmosphere and keep degrading the entire world environment- until there is nothing left to burn and nothing left to trash.
It’s almost getting too surreal for words at this stage.’
Let’s get that straight:
1. They consider the sun to have no impact on our climate.
2. Despite that, carbon dioxide is a massive driver of it.
3. This was shown over 100 years ago (I’d appreciate comments on whether that is true or not and how that compares to contemporary thinking).
4. They have gone beyond the possibility that their view could possibly be wrong.
This was a story about ‘the decline of the Amazon being irreversible’. Well it is if we keep chopping it down and burning it.
I don’t think that has ANYTHING to do with solar energy. It has to do with the radiative balance of energy arriving at and leaving the earth’s surface.
And it won’t be changed by carbon capture technologies.
Leaked EPA draft highlights new research on climate risks
Has links to document. Here is our chance to take it apart. Any takers?
Anthony, this might deserve its own subject – please peruse it.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/03/11/11greenwire-leaked-epa-draft-highlights-new-research-on-he-10084.html
Off topic
The Met Office is at it again.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/4976275/Amazon-rainforest-at-risk-of–ecological-catastrophe.html
More character assassination and use of Holocaust language by the Guardian today
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/12/climate-change-sceptic-environment
Instead of using the term ‘denier’ this time she uses the term ‘revisionists’, a reference to Holocaust deniers who attempt to revise history.
She also refuses to acknowledge or debate any of the science and resorts to this kind of racist and sexist banter:
The contrast with the America embodied by Obama’s election is stark. The 600 attendees (by the organisers’ count) are almost entirely white males, and many, if not most, are past retirement age. Only two women and one African-American man figure on the programme of more than 70 speakers.
So that’s it then. If you’re white or old enough to have some experience of various matters you should get lost, sit at the back of the bus, or die even.
Wait, wouldn’t that apply to the community of alarmist scientists too?
She also makes continual references to Exxon-Mobil being a sponsor of skepticism, but fails to make any mention of how much money oil companies donate to various environmental causes and organisations.
Joe D’Aleo sums up the ICCC conference here:
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog
It doesn’t sound like any real media came out to cover it. I have yet to find a real report about it from Drudge, Fox, Washington Times or other major outlet. That’s really disappointing. So much for open debate.
The media ought be spit upon.
I just checked FOXNEWS website SciTech page headlines: Okla., Utah Lead the Pack in Cell Phone…
– Google Tracks Readers’ Interests to…
– Orbital Water Guns Could Blow Away…
– Rumors Swirl About Apple Touchscreen…
– Archaeologists Find Golden Jewelry in…
– Web’s Role in Terrorism May Be Overstated…
– MIT Professor Only Second Woman to…
– Filipino Activists Rescue World’s Smallest…
– UK to Cut Speed Limit, Enforce With High…
– Student Sues US Airways for $1M Over…
– Scientists Warn of Catastrophic Sea Level Rise…
– Long-Lost Ancient Greek Instrument…
– Jetpacks Soar in Popularity…
– Robot Teacher Makes Debut at…
– Robotic Exoskeleton…
Anything about the ICCC? NO!
1) The PR persons for the ICCC ought to be fired.
2) Screw FOXNEWS.
I mean c’mon!
“Archaeologists Find Golden Jewelry” – “Long-Lost Ancient Greek Instrument”
Does anyone give a rat’s rear end about that?
FIRE THE PR PERSONS!!
I am a new poster to this site but have been an ice watcher for the last couple of years. I am aware that there have been all kinds of problems with satelite sensors etc but over the last week NSIDC has indicated a huge reduction in ice extent. Has anyone any idea what has gone wrong with the images at http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/daily.html there seems to be a problem around the Gulf of St Lawrence. I am sorry if this has been mentioned before and I have just missed the comments.
I’m not sure if some of the people that have commented were kidding or not but if they aren’t then all I have to say is who let the global-warmer flood gates open? I’ve never seen so many anti-global warming denier haters in one comment section!
They had a pefectly good agenda on cleaning up the environment, superfunds sites, etc.
We had the really bad examples of Communist countries as to what we didn’t want our nation to end up looking and smelling like.
We were making progress.
That wasn’t good enough, no, they had to come up with AGW. Ban Energy. Make it too expensive. Perform Frankenstein Doomsday Experiments on the climate.
Every day, another 10,000 step out into the cold reality of a cooling planet and get thier minds changed for them. It’s hard to swallow the fanatical hype when your face feels like dried plaster in the refrigerator. It’s hard to maintain the thought of frying heat when you are suffering with January temps in March.