November 21, 2009
What's Inside:
Public opinion rapidly cooling on global warming
by By DINA CAPPIELLO/Associated Press
Friday, October 23, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
WASHINGTON — Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming.
Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.
In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.
The steepest drop has occurred during the past year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and international negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have been under way. At the same time, there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change — from melting ice caps to the world’s oceans
hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.
The poll was released a day after 18 scientific organizations wrote Congress to reaffirm the consensus behind global warming. A federal government report Thursday found that global warming is upsetting the Arctic’s thermostat.
Only about a third, or 36 percent of the respondents, feel that human activities — such as pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles — are behind a temperature increase. That’s down from 47 percent from 2006 through last year’s poll.
“The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things,” suggested Andrew Kohut, the director of the research center, which conducted the poll from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. “When the focus is on other things, people forget and see these issues as less grave.”
Andrew Weaver, a professor of climate analysis at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said politics could be drowning out scientific awareness.
“It’s a combination of poor communication by scientists, a lousy summer in the Eastern United States, people mixing up weather and climate and a (major effort) by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public,” he said.
Political breakdowns in the survey underscore how tough it could be to enact a law limiting pollution emissions blamed for warming. While three-quarters of Democrats believe the evidence of a warming planet is solid, and nearly half believe the problem is serious, far fewer conservative and moderate Democrats see the problem as grave. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans say there is no solid evidence of global warming, up from 31 percent in early 2007.
Though there are exceptions, the vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is occurring and that the primary cause is a buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal.
This story has 15 comments. Click here to join in on the discussion.
Story Tools
Hyperlink Legend
E-mail story
Print friendly version
iPod friendly version
Today's Top Headlines
Holiday requests expected to rise
Grain truck concerns arise after wreck
Toy hamster’s popularity says a lot about economy
Stewart sentenced in sodomy case
In the courts, Nov. 21, 2009
JOB SEARCH
RECENTLY DISCUSSED
Coleman, Intel join forces
(86 comments)
City wants grant to battle smoking
(76 comments)
Your letters, Nov. 21, 2009
(17 comments)
It's your call, Nov. 19, 2009
(54 comments)
More Popular Discussions
(86 comments)
City wants grant to battle smoking
(76 comments)
Your letters, Nov. 21, 2009
(17 comments)
It's your call, Nov. 19, 2009
(54 comments)
Al Gore is a HUGE D-O-R-K !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does anyone think an opinion poll changes the fact that humans are slowly (or maybe not-so-slowly) destroying the planet?
I can't imagine anyone in their right mind thinking all the stuff we put in the ground, water and air can be good for the planet. But then again, that's just me. It doesn't matter if you believe in global warming or not, we can't continue to dump toxins in on and around dear old mother earth forever or forever may never come. Lets try and leave it better than we found it.
Global warming caused by humans is a joke. This rock that we're all spinning through space on has been evolving for thousands of years and is STILL evolving. The earth has gone through heating and cooling cycles for centuries. Many scientists believe that we're simply coming out of a cooling cycle, nothing more.
There’s no doubt that humans have an effect on the environment – the real question is how much of an effect are we having.
I’ve posted a link below to a You Tube clip of a show from Penn & Teller about environmental hysteria. Watch the clip. If you get the opportunity to see the entire show in a re-run be sure to do it.
Penn & Teller’s show “Bullsh*t” is on Showtime. You can also buy DVD’s with several episodes on each.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTwa
In one of the postings, there was mention that the stuff we keep dumping can't be good for the planet...where does that "stuff" come from? Simple, it comes from the planet. Just like shoes and other items are sometimes labeled "man-made materials"...hmmm. Seems they're all man-made with earth materials. Global warming or not, we're not destroying the planet...it's going to be around long after we've (for whatever reason) become extinct. It will just render itself uninhabitable by those who try to damage it.
For some reason the above link won't work for me.
Let's try again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw
hard to say who is telling the truth. everyone seems to have different opions. but if al gore is pushing one view i probably put my money on the opposite view. that man is a total moron. i rank him up there with carter and sharptons,with jessie throwed in for good measure. there more about self-promotion,not facts.
I am tired of people say that humans are destroying the planet, and holding save the earth day rally's. First of all humans can't destroy the planet, but the planet can destroy us!! We can't save the Earth!! The Earth will be just fine no matter what we do and if we keep pumping pollution into the atmosphere eventually the Earth will cleanse itself of us!! So we should be holding Save our own butts day not save the planet day. I tend to go along with the Scientist who mostly agree we are speeding up the natural warming of the planet, only makes sense that we think about slowing that process down. I really don't want my great great grand kids to experience an early ice age. It's kind of a no brainer to me. But Americans have an inclination to put their immediate satisfaction ahead of long term sensibilities. Look at the deficits and debt we run up... actually Conservatives should be the ones naturally concerned about global warming instead of promoting reckless burning of fossil fuels... that's conservation and it's conservative thinking. Conservatives don't even know who they are anymore but claim to own the moral high ground. I am a Libertarian by the way. I believe in God but I am tired of Republicans crying keep Government out of my life from one side of their mouth and preaching holier than though and pushing an assault on the Separation of Church and State out of the other side. God Bless us all.
showmecb is a perfect example of how difficult it is for some people to stay on topic and not ramble all over the place.
Polls such as this definitely indicate that public opinion can be shaped by campaigns of misinformation funded by those who have a political agenda that would be cramped by efforts to evolve into more reliance upon renewable fuels, conservation of the remaining fossil fuels, etc. Common sense alone would dictate that conservation makes sense and stupid waste does not....but then, common sense ain't so common or we wouldn't be in most of the predicaments we have, including the ones we pretend aren't there.
The Penn & Teller link I provided is to their show about people being followers. They had people signing up left and right to ban “dyhydrogen monoxide” – better known as H2O.
People that had no idea what they were signing actually signed the petition to ban water.
This is the link that works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3erdgVVTw
Al Gore is a dork, I love when people bash someone that was elected to the second highest position in govt. and I'm pretty sure he won the popular vote for president wow what a dork. If you think global warming isn't real your the dork, tell that to the polar bears at kc zoo because that's the only place you'll be able to see them in the future.
dalearch, i thought i would mention that Penn and teller are comedians. the concept of being a comedian is to make you laugh. they don't tell you the truth , they make you laugh. i cant see why all the carbons we throw into the atmosphere would not make a difference.it has been proven that if we keep polluting the great mother earth we will end up paying the price. i too agree that if we stopped tomorrow it would clean itself up.but we both know we cant do that when china is building coal fired plants up one every 12 days. look at the one's that have been down wind of oil and gas wells. they are paying the price now. well we are not going to listen to one another anyway. when we cant breath anymore we can turn green together.
donaldo:
Once again you show your stupidity.
Penn & Teller are also magicians, but it doesn’t matter what they do. They’re not telling us anything…they’re showing us - in a video - how stupid some people are.
Are you really not smart enough to see that?