Yale: Global warming on the out with Americans

They should redo the poll now after people have a chance to read the latest article in Nature, where even Trenberth conceded natural cycles are playing a big role, big enough to override the posited global CO2 control knob for climate. Of course we all know from past experience that these polls by Leiserowitz and Mailbach have been biased by their methodology, so even seeing this admission about their data is encouraging.

For Immediate Release – Contact: Anthony Leiserowitz, 203-432-4865

ABOUT 1 IN 4 AMERICANS SAY GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT HAPPENING

HALF SAY THEY ARE “WORRIED” ABOUT IT

January 15, 2014 – (New Haven, CT) A national survey conducted in the final months of 2013 finds that there has been an increase in the proportion of Americans who believe global warming is not happening (23%, up 7 percentage points since April 2013). But about two in three Americans (63%) believe global warming is happening, a number that has been consistent since spring 2013. The proportion of Americans who say they “don’t know” whether or not global warming is happening has dropped 6 points – from 20% to 14% – since spring of 2013.

On other measures, the survey found that public awareness over the past year has remained essentially stable:

  • About half of Americans (51%) say they are “somewhat” (38%) or “very worried” (15%) about global warming.
  • Fewer than half of Americans (38%) believe they personally will be harmed a “moderate amount” or a “great deal” by global warming. By contrast, majorities believe that global warming will harm future generations of people (65%) and plant and animal species (65%).

“Our findings show that the public’s understanding of global warming’s reality, causes, and risks has not improved and has, in at least one important respect, gone in the wrong direction over the past year,” said researcher Ed Maibach, PhD, of George Mason University. “Better public communication about global warming is needed now more than ever.”

The survey also found that Americans (59%) are “interested” in global warming.

Moreover, about four in 10 say they feel “helpless” (43%), “disgusted” (42%), or “sad” (40%) when thinking about global warming. By contrast, four in ten (42%), say they feel “hopeful” about the subject.

“Global warming stirs a number of emotions among Americans,” said lead researcher Anthony Leiserowitz, PhD, of Yale University. “But these emotions differ greatly across ‘Global Warming’s Six Americas’. For example, other than saying they feel ‘interested,’ the ‘Alarmed’ are mostly afraid, sad, and angry about global warming, while the ‘Dismissive’ are mostly disgusted and angry. These different emotional responses are clearly fueling the debate.”

These findings come from a nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Interview dates: November 23-December 9, 2013. Interviews: 830 Adults (18+).
Total average margin of error: +/- 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The research Energy Foundation, the 11th Hour Project, the Grantham Foundation, and the V.K. Rasmussen Foundation funded the research.

In addition to Dr. Leiserowitz, principal investigators included Geoff Feinberg, Dr. Seth Rosenthal, and Dr. Jennifer Marlon of Yale University and Drs. Edward Maibach and Connie Roser-Renouf of George Mason University.

For questions about the survey or to speak with the principal investigators:

Anthony Leiserowitz, 203-432-4865, anthony.leiserowitz@yale.edu

Edward Maibach, 703-993-1587, emaibach@gmu.edu

Lynsy Smithson Stanley, 646-559-8284, lsmithsonstanley@climatenexus.org

For more information, please go to:

http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/article/Climate-Beliefs-November-2013

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Louis
January 16, 2014 12:51 pm

“Records of past climate show some long-lasting global heatwaves and cold snaps, and climate models suggest that either of these can occur as the world warms under the influence of greenhouse gases.” — Jeff Tollefson, Nature

Notice how they are now claiming that even a “long-lasting” global cold snap can occur as the world warms? We could enter a new ice age and these climate alarmists would claim it is the fault of greenhouse gases. They are determined to ensure that absolutely nothing can falsify their new religion, I mean theory.

Hugh Davis
January 16, 2014 1:05 pm

If all Americans were forced to read this beautifully succinct demolition of AGW hysteria by Maurice Newman in The Australian – http://www.thegwpf.org/maurice-newman-mother-nature-suggests-partys-ipcc/ – would the percentage of those fearful of global warming drop below 50%? Or has years of indoctrination rendered the majority of US citizens (or citizens of other countries for that matter) brain dead?

Bruce Cobb
January 16, 2014 1:12 pm

@Larry, what’s your point? On the one hand, the “experts” are saying global warming is a huge problem, and is caused by us, and they are clearly wrong. On the other hand, the science behind evolution is fairly solid. The two ideas are not even remotely interconnected. Also, I see you threw in the bit about the earth beginning 6,000 years ago yourself. Axe to grind, or what?

bobl
January 16, 2014 1:24 pm

I might point out that scepticism is also highest among those that can manage a bit of calculus, and who know what a geometric progression is. That is… Scepticism is highest among those who are able to check things for themselves, doesn’t bode well for the consensus.

Steve from Rockwood
January 16, 2014 1:29 pm

Turns out the “control knobs” were the climate scientists.

DesertYote
January 16, 2014 2:19 pm

Resourceguy says:
January 16, 2014 at 9:48 am
BTW, Yale is a hollow image of its former self and informed parents are discovering that ahead of time for college choice.
###
Yale is very good at doing what it believes to be its mission and that is brainwashing our children to see the world with a Marxist world-view. One of my good friends when to Yale for two years to work on his Phd. He returned a babbling automaton of lefty lunacy. It was heart breaking to see. He used to be brilliant.

herkimer
January 16, 2014 2:54 pm

To me these type of surveys are stacked toward global warming before they start. When you have most of the major news outlets whether tv or press openly biased[ most knowingly admit to this ] to only reporting news that is favourable toward global warming and refusing to report any news to the contrary, if you then take a survey about what the public thinks or knows about global warming , the answer will be obvious . If however you regularly give the public all climate news including both sides of the debate in an unbiased way and then take a your survey, I think you will get a much different answer. Thank goodness we have the internet and social media to level the playing field.. I tend to ignore all climate science reporting coming from the major tv networks and the major press knowing that it will only be half the story at the best.

Gail Combs
January 16, 2014 3:11 pm

Berényi Péter says: January 16, 2014 at 12:04 pm
….. Have I missed a major paradigm shift in epistemology?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes, Lysenkoism Post Normal Science is now what is taught.

Gail Combs
January 16, 2014 3:19 pm

bobl says: January 16, 2014 at 1:24 pm
…..That is… Scepticism is highest among those who are able to check things for themselves, doesn’t bode well for the consensus.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
That is why John Dewey, Father of the Modern Education System destroyed American literacy.

Dumbing Down America
by Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld
…Dewey’s philosophy had evolved from Hegelian idealism to socialist materialism, and the purpose of the school was to show how education could be changed to produce little socialists and collectivists instead of little capitalists and individualists….
In order to do so he analyzed the traditional curriculum that sustained the capitalist, individualistic system and found what he believed was the sustaining linchpin — that is, the key element that held the entire system together: high literacy. To Dewey, the greatest obstacle to socialism was the private mind that seeks knowledge in order to exercise its own private judgment and intellectual authority. High literacy gave the individual the means to seek knowledge independently. It gave individuals the means to stand on their own two feet and think for themselves. This was detrimental to the “social spirit” needed to bring about a collectivist society. Dewey wrote in Democracy and Education, published in 1916:

When knowledge is regarded as originating and developing within an individual, the ties which bind the mental life of one to that of his fellows are ignored and denied.
When the social quaility of individualized mental operations is denied, it becomes a problem to find connections which will unite an individual with his fellows. Moral individualism is set up by the conscious separation of different centers of life. It has its roots in the notion that the consciousness of each person is wholly private, a self-inclosed continent. intrinsically independent of the ideas, wishes, purposes of everybody else.

And he wrote in School and Society in 1899:

The tragic weakness of the present school is that it endeavors to prepare future members of the social order in a medium in which the conditions of the social spirit are eminently wanting …
The mere absorbing of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of merely learning, there is no clear social gain in success threat.

ossqss
January 16, 2014 4:32 pm

I really want to take that poll, but I am shivering too much to do so as I sit under an umbrella heater on a porch in Sarasota. Disgusted, may I add!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ltFasxh4ors/TVqz6YFqmSI/AAAAAAAAAIw/CJRzwQhgZ4o/s1600/freeze+your+butt+off.jpg

Rick Bradford
January 16, 2014 4:51 pm

Who gave this Maibach individual the right to decide what is, or what is not, “the wrong direction”?
All the Green/Left traits on view: arrogance, cultism, groupthink and immaturity.

bushbunny
January 16, 2014 5:22 pm

I wonder who the people were who were part of the survey? Personally I liked Stevens comment, “‘Tis easier to fool people than convince them they are being fooled’ Mark Twain. In Oz we are in the middle of summer and people are explaining the high temps are part of the CO2 build up in our atmosphere. Now we oldies, who have lived in different hemispheres will tell you a temp of 31 C in UK is very hotter than normal, but in Oz, it is not unusual during summer. Other than in the outback and inland, other than in our Southern States, SA, WA and Vic. Queensland, is much hotter than most generally but parts of this State and the NT are subject to monsoonal regions. But they worry about a increase in CO2, natural or human made, now Methane. Now they are blaming the politicians for not doing something about the hot weather. If it wasn’t so serious it would be laughable. Having lived in the middle east (Cyprus) and visited Lebanon and Egypt in their winter, hot is hot in their summers. But they get snow too! I just wonder if any Canadians can tell us how the wind turbines are coping with their colder than cold winter? I would be interested to know.

bushbunny
January 16, 2014 5:29 pm

PS. In NSW if the temps reach over 39C, dog shows are stopped. I remember in the late 70s when this rule didn’t exist, stewarding at a large show near Penrith (near the foot of the blue mountain). It reached 43 C. Dogs died from heat, two whippets, and others suffered heat exhaustion. People were throwing the dogs and themselves in the nearby river. I stewarded, and my judge nearly fainted from the heat, so after lunch I went out to prepare her ring for her (no shade then) and to refresh my makeup I took my lipstick out of my bag, and it melted onto my chest. That’s hot. On our way back to Cronulla on the coast, the cars were lined up on this road from overheating, but when we got home, the temps were much cooler and liveable. Hot happens. In Melbourne they stopped the Australian open in some courts because of the heat too.

rogerknights
January 16, 2014 5:32 pm

DesertYote says:
January 16, 2014 at 2:19 pm
Yale is very good at doing what it believes to be its mission and that is brainwashing our children to see the world with a Marxist world-view. One of my good friends when to Yale for two years to work on his Phd. He returned a babbling automaton of lefty lunacy. It was heart breaking to see. He used to be brilliant.

He’s become a member of what someone called “our regiments of well-drilled PhDs.”

Mervyn
January 16, 2014 5:44 pm

People have been recognising the difference between science and propaganda, and it seems that the US President is big on propaganda when it comes to catastrophic man-made global warming (climate change), and it is turning off people.

Gail Combs
January 16, 2014 6:05 pm

bushbunny says: January 16, 2014 at 5:22 pm
…… In Oz we are in the middle of summer and people are explaining the high temps are part of the CO2 build up in our atmosphere. Now we oldies, who have lived in different hemispheres will tell you a temp of 31 C….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Good grief 31C is not quite 88F. We were seeing over 90F, .2 days 91F and 4 days 93F, in the month of April, our spring, in 2004. I have also seen days at 100F (38C) or over both here in North Carolina, New York AND in Boston. MA it was so hot the motherboard of my computer at work melted.
These people are wimps.

lee
January 16, 2014 7:15 pm

bushbunny says:
January 16, 2014 at 5:22 pm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have to take issue. WA is only partially a southern state, down here (southern half) was 49.7 the other day. 🙂

james
January 17, 2014 4:33 am

Good Day everyone!
Well! a quite remarkable news item has just appeared from the BBC ‘Newsnight’ team, which is headed up ‘Has the Sun gone to sleep’
In this video clip, it is now stating that scientists have now confirmed that the sun has started to enter into a new phase of inactvity whic has not been experienced for many thousands of years!
The conclusions seem to be that the Northen Hemisphere is due to experience a long period of really cold and freezing winters and a severe drop in temperatures worldwide!
Has there been a dramatic conversion of the warming zealots at the BBC?

ferdberple
January 17, 2014 6:35 am

How to conduct a survey to get the answers you want

January 17, 2014 6:53 am

I just used their “I am Dismissive” graphic as my Profile Picture on Facebook. 😉

ferdberple
January 17, 2014 6:59 am

We lived in Papua New Guinea for a year. It is a large island nation between Australia and the equator, so while it is hot in Oz it is really hot in PNG. Yet, while those of us of European ancestry were sweating in our T-short and shorts, the local population were wearing heavy coats, gloves and balaclava’s to ward off the cold.
Sure the white folks in OZ find it hot, because there are descended from people that are genetically selected to survive in a cold, wet, miserable climate when you don’t see the sun for days on end. Stick them out in the tropical sun without protection and in a couple of hours they look like boiled lobster. While at the same time the aboriginal population will be complaining about the cold.

bushbunny
Reply to  ferdberple
January 17, 2014 5:43 pm

That’s new to me about PNG. I thought the locals wore few clothes all the time. Especially in the interior. I lived in Bermuda, and when there in 1969, I experienced the lowest temp since leaving UK. 39F. That was in their winter. We burned red cedar in our fireplaces during winter. But sweltered in summer, the humidity? Leather would go mouldy and bread went the same way kept in the fridge. Anyway must go and look after my plants some are wilting with the heat, 26 C in the house though. Very pleasant.

ferdberple
January 17, 2014 7:05 am

We also lived in Oz for a year. Try wearing shorts and T-shirts into restaurants and bars. Can’t be done. Smart casual only. Men can wear shorts only if they are wearing knee socks. Otherwise you must year long pants. Everywhere you go, businessmen are wearing wool suit just like they are back in jolly old England. And then they complain about the hot. Give you head a shake.

ferdberple
January 17, 2014 7:08 am

james says:
January 17, 2014 at 4:33 am
‘Has the Sun gone to sleep’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25771510

ferdberple
January 17, 2014 7:17 am

Any yet, only 80 some years ago the English were fearless…
In tropical climes
There are certain times
Of day
When all the citizens retire
To take their clothes off and perspire.
It’s one of those rules
That the greatest fools
Obey,
Because the sun is far too sultry
And one must avoid its ultry
Violet ray.
The natives grieve
When the white men leave
Their huts.
Because they’re obviously,
Definitely
Nuts.
Mad Dogs & Englishmen
Go out in the midday sun.
etc.
http://lyrics.wikia.com/No%C3%ABl_Coward:Mad_Dogs_And_Englishmen

rogerknights
January 17, 2014 4:01 pm

ferdberple says:
January 17, 2014 at 7:05 am
We also lived in Oz for a year. Try wearing shorts and T-shirts into restaurants and bars. Can’t be done. Smart casual only. Men can wear shorts only if they are wearing knee socks.

And not with sandals. Here’s a hilarious cartoon:
http://gawker.com/5752251/the-devastation-that-can-be-caused-by-wearing-socks-with-sandals