We’ve seen recent polls that show interest in “climate change” as being dead last with members of the public, now here’s yet another indicator. EurekAlert gauged the popularity of its science news releases, hundreds of which were about climate change during this past year, and not surprisingly, “climate change” didn’t win, place, or show.
EurekAlert! 2014 most popular news releases revealed
Wage disclosure, health science and new species got the most clicks
A news release about the unintended consequences of disclosing public officials’ wages drew nearly 180,000 visits to EurekAlert! in 2014, making it the most popular news release of the year.
Health science dominated the topics described in the 10 most-viewed news releases, with six releases covering research on the brain, sleep, intoxication, HIV and the impact of the environment on health.
News releases about identifying new species using genome sequencing technology took two spots, while an analysis of U.S. arrest rates rounded out this year’s 10 most popular releases, which received a total of more than 1.2 million views.
The annual list was compiled based on the number of public and reporter views of news releases received between 1 January and 5 December, 2014. EurekAlert! is a science-news service operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the nonprofit scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.
More than 25,672 news releases were eligible for inclusion on EurekAlert! in 2014. All news releases were submitted by accredited research institutions and peer-reviewed journals worldwide, and made available to registered science reporters and the public.
The 10 most-visited EurekAlert! news releases of 2014 were:
- Wage disclosures for public officials lead to salary cuts, high turnover rates (179,434)
Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; National Bureau of Economic Research
- New research sheds light on how the body regulates fundamental neuro-hormone (177,830)
University of Bristol; Nature Communications
- Virginia Tech scientist proposes revolutionary naming system for all life on Earth (168,019)
Virginia Tech; PLOS ONE
- Study finds later school start times improve sleep and daytime functioning in adolescents (159,777)
Lifespan; Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
- Fukushima’s legacy (131,928)
American Genetic Association; Journal of Heredity
- Mutation stops worms from getting drunk (105,515)
University of Texas at Austin; The Journal of Neuroscience
- Green spaces deliver lasting mental health benefits (81,972)
University of Exeter; Environmental Science & Technology
- New frog discovered inhabiting I-95 corridor from Connecticut to North Carolina (78,134)
Rutgers University; PLOS ONE
- Study of antibody evolution charts course toward HIV vaccine (74,765)
NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Nature
- Study: Half of black males, 40 percent of white males arrested by age 23 (66,971)
University of South Carolina; Crime & Delinquency
Five Most-Shared Releases
The five most-shared news releases were circulated more than 36,000 times via EurekAlert! in 2014 through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr, and e-mail, as recorded by AddThis. Three of the most-shared releases were also among the most-viewed overall. The most-shared releases were:
- Study finds later school start times improve sleep and daytime functioning in adolescents (151)
Lifespan; Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
- New research sheds light on how the body regulates fundamental neuro-hormone (115)
Bristol University; Nature Communications
- Why dark chocolate is good for your heart (104)
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology; FASEB Journal
- Study: Half of black males, 40 percent of white males arrested by age 23 (84)
University of South Carolina; Crime & Delinquency
- No link found between movie, video game violence and societal violence (75)
International Communication Association; Journal of Communication
EurekAlert! has more than 18.5K followers on Twitter via @EurekAlertAAAS and just reached 10K fans on Facebook.
Background
Three major themes emerged from this year’s 10 most popular news releases:
Transparency and criminal justice (1st, 10th)
2014’s No. 1 release illustrated the pitfalls of transparency : wages of California’s city managers were cut by eight percent on average after the information went public, and 75 percent of the public servants subsequently quit their jobs. The research team cautioned that cutting wages due to public opinion may not be a good policy, especially if the employees feel that their hard work warrants the original wage.
Discrimination in arrest and incarceration rates in the United States has attracted growing attention over the past year following several high-profile court cases. The 10th most-visited release broke down arrest rates by age, gender, and race in the country between 1997 and 2008. While the arrest rates remained comparable among all races over time for women, the gap in arrest rates among black, Hispanic and white males was wider and increased during the study.
Health and the environment (2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th)
The second most-trafficked release identified lactate as a double-duty chemical compound. Lactate is known for providing energy for long periods of exercise after oxygen depletion, and researchers recently found that it also acts as a signal between brain cells, causing them to release more norepinephrine, the neurotransmitter responsible for the “fight or flight” response. The discovery may lead to new medications.
The fourth most-visited release described a study showing that a 25-minute delay in school start times alleviated the ill-effects of sleep deprivation in high school students. The later start time resulted in an increase in the number of students who slept eight hours or more. On average, students were also happier and better prepared to learn.
A release about the ongoing biological effects of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant meltdown in 2011 took the No. 5 spot. It covered a set of research papers on the genetic effects of radiation on non-human animals exposed to radiation on site. The studies concluded that low-dose exposure to radiation at the power plant caused increased rates of genetic mutation and damage.
The sixth most-visited release showed that worms are good models for drunkenness. In this study, purported to be a first-of-its-kind, a neural molecule that binds alcohol in the human brain was modified and inserted into worms. Other than an inability to become intoxicated, no other physiological effects were reported in the mutant worms. The researchers hoped this work could be used to help treat alcohol abuse.
The seventh most widely read news release on EurekAlert! in 2014 reported lasting mental-health effects for people living in greener areas. Surprisingly, the benefits accrued over a five-year period continued for years after ¬- even if the study subjects moved away. The results reinforced the importance of using urban planning for public access green spaces, which could provide public health benefits such as combatting depression.
The ninth most-visited story focused on HIV vaccine research. This National Institutes of Health study analyzed blood samples from an HIV-positive volunteer who developed a natural protection against the virus – an antibody that blocks a particular site on the HIV virus. The researchers predicted that an HIV vaccine will need to include this antibody, and work is now under way to develop such components.
Big data and biological classification (3rd, 8th)
The third most-trafficked news release proposed a classification and naming system based on genetic information now available thanks to new genome sequencing tools and the enormous amounts of data deriving from them. This would allow researchers to readily name newly found organisms, or to see how closely related an organism is to a known relative.
The eighth most-visited release described how an unidentified frog species had been hiding in plain sight in New York along I-95, a major interstate highway. Commonly called the “Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog,” the species’ Latin namesake was ecologist Carl Kauffeld, who first claimed that this frog was a separate species back in the 1930’s. It took genetic and bioacoustic analyses – and about 80 years – to confirm that claim.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The Public has “moved on” in three groups. The True Believers, who don’t want to hear any more news as that might challenge their belief in The One True Religion. The Skeptics / D-ers (I’m a D-er as I flat out deny that any CO2 effect of warming exists, and have the rational basis for it – hint: the troposphere is not radiative, it’s convective, and the stratosphere where it is radiative is a cooling zone via enhanced CO2) we have “moved on” in that we know who have lied and cheated (we have their email…). Then there are the ‘great middle’ who think something fishy might be happening, but mostly need to know what Hot Celebrity is sleeping with whom, got busted for drugs, is having a sex change, or is divorcing what… and decided long ago that anything more complicated wasn’t as much fun…
The next phase is to assure that the greed, graft, and flat out theft of public monies end up juicy enough to land on The Sun, National Enquirer, etc. as something juicy enough to get the folks in the middle to grab their wallet and their politician by the short hairs… Basically, it needs to become un-trendy for the Gliterati and a bit unseemly to the D.A. ( preferably with some prosecutions…) Until then, the two edges are shouting at each other over a large middle that is listing to news about Bieber…
The ideologues eventually shoot themselves in the foot. Mainstream researchers believe in it to start with and intelligent outsiders start off believing that we are warming the planet. Why would be not believe the researchers are sincere. When nature doesn’t cooperate, instead of changing course and looking for other things that make climate work the way it does, they are trapped. They’ve sold themselves to the devil. Changing course is unthinkable for the entrenched ideologues who actually stepped in front of the parade early on as such opportunists know how to do.
Witness Canadian high school educated Maurice Strong, a very bright but idiosyncratic socialist who spent much of his personal development in the executive class of the mining industry and ultimately was Pres and CEO of PetroCanada (originally a government owned Corp) – he created the UNFCCC – the climate summit in Rio and “framed” the IPCC research objective as to show that man-made CO2 (i.e. from big industrialized countries) was going to lead to disaster for the planet. It was his idea to hook scientists and governments up using cash and fame that only the few could resist with the way universities’ funding systems, tenure, etc. have been set up (by the same ideologues). They don’t know how to get off the treadmill and so they are faced with reaching farther and farther into fantasy to explain the that what is happening is just as we should expect with climate change theory based on CO2 (what happened to global warming?). The public gets it when the crazy policies start to hit the individual’s bottom line and the economies are bleeding.
The committed who can’t let go now find themselves doing stuff they don’t believe in anymore. Pathetically showing yellowing slides from 2007, the locust plague of peer reviewed papers from them having dried up, sneering and smearing in op eds that are now open also to skeptics, giving talks with dwindling listeners, starring in busted low budget TV series and movies on TV with their medicine show, not getting any more ‘back-at-cha’ responses from Hollywood stars….they start to get the climate blues and actually become psychologically ill. The list of sufferers is growing and they are in denial, claiming they are down because they can see disaster looming and no one is listening – but they are getting it, too. They know there is nothing to listen to.
In as much as the MSM is manipulated by the U.N. and its subsidiaries, the E.U. and the IPCC – and there can be no doubt that they ARE manipulated – a reduction in grandstanding always makes me nervous.
The only reason the press reduces the intensity of its climate propaganda is because it is DIRECTED and/or PERMITTED to do so.
As long as ‘the agenda’ is proceeding in the desired fashion, public opinion is neither required nor sought.
Barack Hussein Obama is the ultimate ‘mole’; a ‘plant’ of great importance to the Fabian Socialist group, which has global plans.
The Global Warming Scam has made it clear to me that an unelected ‘ruling elite’ is in the process of attempting to establish a global government based broadly on the principles of Soviet communism. I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist kind of person but the obvious lies and orchestration I see in the Climate Debate have convinced me that, in this case, a far-reaching conspiracy definitely does exist.
It is a tenet of the Left that democracy is the road to communism, since electorates come to realise they can vote themselves ‘free money’ from tax-payer funds, just as politicians come to realise they can buy themselves power with the same money.
Eventually everyone has welfare rights and no one has fiscal responsibilities, the financial system buckles under the strain, social cohesion breaks down, and political change ensues. And that change involves ‘strong government’. It’s totalitarianism by stealth – the modus operandi of Fabianism (look it up).
The desired control can be accelerated by the use of contrived catastrophes like ‘Climate Change’ – an ostensibly disastrous global problem requiring strong global control.
I once saw a black-and-white cowboy movie. One of the cowboys said to the old-timer next to him: “Listen! Did you hear that? Must be injuns?” The old-timer said: “Nawww! When you don’t hear nothin’, THAT’S when it’s injuns!!”
In the same way, when you don’t hear climate propaganda continually in the MSM, that’s when you really need to worry.
Update on Dr. Viner’s “thing of the past”.
Climate change making white Christmases a thing of the past: UW prof
What passes for “climate science” is more propaganda and advocacy than science. The public, with the exception of those with a vested emotional, intellectual, or financial stake in it, increasingly realizes this.
Polls are irrelevant. The reality is that the dangerous man-mad global warming agenda has the support of most of the global media, backed by political propaganda, and the UN.
We can fool ourselves that peoples’ interest in climate change is at a low. But that’s totally irrelevant and very dangerous.
What matters is what is said by the UN, by its IPCC, and by governments around the world, for that is what gets reported in the mass media and what people get to hear. The army of skeptic realists have no equivalent support mechanism, which makes it truly a David versus Goliath scenario trying to fight the dangerous man-made global warming agenda.
In my view, the warmist agenda is winning the PR war. You just have to talk to the person next to you at a dinner party or whatever, and you’ll understand what I mean. Most people are ignorant about the topic of climate change, and all they have to go on is what they read or hear from the media or politicians, and assume that there is no way the media or politicians would lie to the public.
There is going to be one almighty blitz of ‘gloom and doom propaganda’ in 2015 leading up to the Paris Conference in December 2015. It is going to be far worse than the global warming propaganda leading up to the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009. My advice is that all climate realists soon band together, combine under a united banner, gather an army of as many eminent climatologists as possible, and with the engagement of professional strategists, come up with a plan to expose the greatest scientific fraud and deception ever imposed on the world.
What they don’t seen to be getting is that WE DON’T BELIEVE THEM. The climate, warmer, colder chicken littles of this world have lost whatever credibility they ever had. They can whine, cry and gnash their teeth all day and no one believes them. They may as well be standing on a street corner with a sign that says: The End Is Near. 🙂
What I think most of us climate sceptics “don’t seem to be getting” is how well the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW) propaganda has done its job.
Pkatt, you and I and thousands of others who examine the facts carefully rather than accept what we’re fed in the MSM, certainly don’t believe the nonsense (non-science) of CAGW – that’s true.
But what Mervyn says is also very true.
Most of my ‘educated’ friends believe the Warmist hype and think I’m eccentric because I don’t. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I point out the lack of hard data behind the CAGW scam, or the deliberate distortion and omission of data, I just can’t get through to them.
As Mervyn says, they “assume that there is no way the media or politicians would lie to the public”.
In this way, they are the epitome of the ‘useful idiots’ so necessary for scams such as this to survive and prosper.
Oh, they’re polite enough – not rude, as such – but they dismiss me with an air of quiet amusement just the same.
I also think Mervyn is absolutely correct that 2015 will see a maelstrom of CAGW misinformation and doomsday hype, leading up to Paris at the end of the year.
In my opinion, Barack Hussein Obama is working for people other than the American electorate. This is borne out by his current ‘rule-by-decree’ policy on the environment, through which he avoids the will of the people in Congress and the Senate by elaborating upon and enforcing laws which already exist in order to achieve his ends. He no longer seeks approval through normal channels and has become the closest thing to a dictator the U.S. has seen since 1776.
He is determined to obey his Fabian political masters at the U.N. (NOT the American people) and leave a legacy of economy-hobbling legislation in his wake, in the form of crippling environmental policies which will stifle U.S. economic recovery.
So no, I suggest you don’t misinterpret any current lull in CAGW publicity. I think it simply indicates that the U.N. plan for global political change and wealth redistribution is on track. And brace yourselves, because the upcoming pre-Paris propaganda blitz will truly be something to behold when it starts.
Yet another indicator:
Australia’s Opposition leader, Bill Shorten, made no reference to climate in his annual address to a yawning nation.
It’s a long way from his predecessor Kevin Rudd’s infantile waffle in 2010 that “climate change is the greatest moral and economic challenge of our time”. On the strength of that, Labor subsequently lumbered the nation with a ruinous carbon tax that essentially lost the election for them last year. PM Tony Abbott axed the tax this year but, in an act of stupefying stupidity, Bill Shorten has vowed to campaign on its reintroduction.