Over on my blog ( http://climatespin.blogspot.com/ ), I've been looking at three recent polls on climate change views. The results overall should be very encouraging to those who think rational science is losing the battle of public opinion.
Amount the highlights: 83% believe global warming is a serious problem (up from 70% in 2004) including 56% who think its "very serious" 38% say major and 28% say extreme changes will happen in the next 50 years if nothing is done about global warming 58% think it takes more drastic measures then recycling, etc. to reduce global warming. 84% think that average global temperatures have been rising over the past century, and more than half say weather has become more unstable where they live. The downside is that 56% think scientists disagree on global warming and 42% believe the warming is caused by a mix of human and natural causes. You can find the original questions for two of those polls here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/polls/postpoll_environment_042007.html http://www.yale.edu/envirocenter/environmentalpoll.htm I see the overall picture as very good news. If the public thinks scientists are unsure, it doesn't matter. They think there's a problem and they're willing to do something about it. The "battle" between scientists and contrarians has become a side-show. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
