"Why Americans are Skeptical of Their Role in Global Warming" (aka Global Climate Disruption)

[Mirza]

Why Americans are Skeptical of Their Role in Global Warming

By Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 19 February 2007
11:29 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO—While the evidence is clear that human-caused global warming is occurring and is a threat to many humans and other organisms on the planet, many Americans have been slow to buy the whole argument.

Yesterday at its annual meeting here, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest science organization in the world, issued a consensus statement that "global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now and is a growing threat to society,'' Earlier this month the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change issued a statement that global warming will "continue for centuries" and is "very likely caused by man."

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The Effects

Seas Rise
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Animal DNA Changing
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Hurricanes Get Stronger
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Lakes Disappear
The Possibilities

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Strange Solutions

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While these statement may have changed public opinion in recent weeks, last year a joint poll between ABC News, Time, Stanford University and Ohio State University found that only 3 in 10 Americans believed that global warming is caused by humans. Less than 40 percent of the nation’s public called global warming is an immediate and serious problem.

"Americans are very much on the same wavelength with the scientific community about the basics of the issue," Jon Krosnick, professor of communication and of political science from Stanford University said during a talk here yesterday. "But they lack certainty" about how bad the problem really is.

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The belief model

Amid the public uncertainty, data continues to pile up. The average global temperature last month was the highest for any January on record. Last year was a record warm year in the United States. The past nine years are all among the 25 warmest on record for the contiguous United States, a streak unprecedented in records dating back to 1896. Scientists say 2007 could be the warmest yet globally.

But there is a disconnect between what scientists know and what the public believes. In order for Americans to embrace an issue like climate change as a nationally serious concern, they first have to believe that the problem exists and that the results would be bad for people, Krosnick said.

“Most Americans believe that,” Krosnick said. However, they also have to be highly certain about the problem. “Only 7 percent are extremely sure of their views about climate change, another 25 percent are very sure and 41 percent only somewhat sure,” Krosnick said. “So there’s lots of room for potential increase in certainty.”

Krosnick's research finds scientists are frustrated. "They've been sounding alarm bells for over a decade, saying, ‘We have a really serious problem with the environment and we're destined for a train wreck down the road. How come nobody is listening?'"

Many scientists assume that the public doesn't understand or accept their work.

"That is wrong," Krosnick said. Most Americans believe the world has been heating up, probably as a result of human activity, and that this will be bad for people, he said. But because people lack absolute certainty, global warming does not arouse a constantly heightened level of public concern.

Additionally, Americans believe that unless they caused the problem, they should not interfere with what’s happening with the climate.

“So in other words, if Mother Nature is doing her thing, then we cope with it and don’t try to manipulate it,” Krosnick said “But if we damage nature then it’s our responsibility to undo it and it is, in fact, a national problem.”

Only 42 percent of Americans blamed climate change on people in last year's poll, Krosnick said.

And lastly, people aren’t willing to acknowledge something is a problem unless it can be fixed, because otherwise it’s just too upsetting.

Media's role

The role of scientists and media is not to be forgotten in affecting public opinion, Krosnick said. Good scientists always leave room for potential mistakes and doubt when reporting their work, but communicating their natural uncertainty can cause reservation in the public mind.

“When we ask people, 'Do you think scientific experts that study the climate mostly agree that the climate is heating up or do you think that there is a lot of disagreement,' 64 percent of Americans said that there is disagreement in the scientific community,” Krosnick said.

This false belief, Krosnick explained, seems to be tied to the efforts of the news media to tell a balanced story.

“Many of the stories have not only the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change but they also have some attention to the skeptics—four people, I guess, that make a good living doing this—and the skeptical point of view has more prominence in the media than it does in the scientific literature,” Krosnick said. “And that’s what’s contributing very importantly to this belief.”[/b]

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070..._americans.html

[Wildkow]

We now have 6 or 8 different topics started with GW as the main issue, five of them by you. This particular point could have been incorporated into one of them instead now you have pushed some other noteworthy topics to the bottom or even off the first page where they can more easily be overlooked.


Wildkow

[adam1991]

Not only that, but you just do a blind copy and paste without bothering to trim all the advertising and other non-article crap that comes along with the article.

Plus, frankly, your .sig is VERY annoying.

[dbermanmd]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(adam1991 @ Mar 13 2007, 05:59 AM) [snapback]404748[/snapback]</div>

Not only that, but you just do a blind copy and paste without bothering to trim all the advertising and other non-article crap that comes along with the article.

Plus, frankly, your .sig is VERY annoying.
[/b]

if he is such a big believer in AGW he should keep his computer turned off or at least limit its uses to between the hours of midnight and 6am when electric rates and usage are at a minimum - but he follows that other great champion of AGW algore in do as i say and i will do as i please.

maybe we should recognize an office name change to "gorebal warming"?

[Lywyllyn]

I think the goal is to hit 1000 posts before the end of march :P

[burritos]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mirza @ Mar 12 2007, 11:50 PM) [snapback]404625[/snapback]</div>

http://www.livescience.com/environment/070..._americans.html
[/b]

People don't believe in it usually because they are mentally impaired. Sort of like, "Hey, inhaling smoke from this little stick for 40 years doesn't do me any harm, I don't care what the doctors and scientists say."

[Ichabod]

It's always the same 4 or 5 people disagreeing with the Global Warming stuff here as well. I suggest that we don't argue with those people anymore because they are clearly unwilling to consider the possibility.

The rest of us generally take a similar view on the matter. In general, posting about Global Warming on a Prius-related website might be a case of "preaching to the choir."

[F8L]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Mar 13 2007, 05:40 PM) [snapback]405082[/snapback]</div>

It's always the same 4 or 5 people disagreeing with the Global Warming stuff here as well. I suggest that we don't argue with those people anymore because they are clearly unwilling to consider the possibility.

The rest of us generally take a similar view on the matter. In general, posting about Global Warming on a Prius-related website might be a case of "preaching to the choir."
[/b]

That is basically what I said when I mentioned the "10% Leaders 80% Followers and 10% Critics" bit. What we have is a case of a few critics who will never be happy with any amount of data you give them, thus we should not focus too much energy on them.

[ufourya]

Originally Posted by F8L

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Mar 13 2007, 05:40 PM) [snapback]405082[/snapback]</div>

That is basically what I said when I mentioned the "10% Leaders 80% Followers and 10% Critics" bit. What we have is a case of a few critics who will never be happy with any amount of data you give them, thus we should not focus too much energy on them.

What we really have is a bunch of people which is too happy with too few data, and a very few folks who are willing to display some common sense in the face of a faith-based community.

[daniel]

Originally Posted by Wildkow

We now have 6 or 8 different topics started with GW as the main issue, five of them by you. This particular point could have been incorporated into one of them instead now you have pushed some other noteworthy topics to the bottom or even off the first page where they can more easily be overlooked.


Wildkow

Noteworthy topics??? In Fred's??? You mean like all those one word, two word, three word, etc. threads? Come on, Kow, there are no noteworthy topics in Fred's. AGW is as important a topic as you're ever going to see here, even if the Bible-thumpers want to give the robber barons of industry a green light to pollute this green Earth black.