I know, it’s hard to believe in global warming what with all the evidence presented by climate change skeptics that global warming is a hoax, and the great Climategate scandal, the one the proved that Evil Scientists and Al Gore had been faking their data in order to make Al Gore rich and steal money from taxpayers to fund their cushy academic lifestyles.
Yet most Americans still seem to believe that global warming is real and caused by human activity. And it gets worse: they want Big Guvmint to do something about it!
(cont.)
In [a recent Political Psychology Research Group] survey, which was financed by a grant to Stanford from the National Science Foundation, 1,000 randomly selected American adults were interviewed by phone between June 1 and Monday. When respondents were asked if they thought that the earth’s temperature probably had been heating up over the last 100 years, 74 percent answered affirmatively. And 75 percent of respondents said that human behavior was substantially responsible for any warming that has occurred. […]
Large majorities opposed taxes on electricity (78 percent) and gasoline (72 percent) to reduce consumption. But 84 percent favored the federal government offering tax breaks to encourage utilities to make more electricity from water, wind and solar power.
And huge majorities favored government requiring, or offering tax breaks to encourage, each of the following: manufacturing cars that use less gasoline (81 percent); manufacturing appliances that use less electricity (80 percent); and building homes and office buildings that require less energy to heat and cool (80 percent).
Well, that’s just one silly little poll by a group associated with Stanford which is in “California” where we all know everyone is a crazy hippy, a pot grower or an illegal immigrant (or all of the above).
And normally I’d have to say, yes, we can dismiss this survey out of hand for those reasons alone — but (damn those buts!) this isn’t the only recent poll showing Americans actually believe in this man-made global warming stuff. There’s another one! And it backs up what those crazy Stanford whackos are saying!
There was more support or more intense support in the June survey for the following actions.
* Global warming should be a very high or high “priority for the president and Congress.”
* Corporations and industries should take more steps to reduce global warming.
* Nearly two-thirds of respondents agreed that the “United States should reduce its greenhouse gas regardless of what other countries do.”
* The U.S. should make a large-scale or medium scale effort, even if it has large or moderate economic costs.
* There was an 8 percent increase in strongly or somewhat support “regulating CO2.”
* The poll found nearly a one-third increase in strong support for “providing tax rebates for people who purchase energy efficient vehicles or solar panels.”By far the two most popular clean energy policies were “fund renewable energy research” and “provide tax rebates for efficient cars and solar panels.” However, “regulate CO2” had more support than “expand offshore oil drilling,” much more support than “build more nuclear power plants.”
You know what the worst thing in that second survey said? That only 13% of Americans say the United States should make “no effort” to reduce global warming! And this is after Climategate. This is after Al Gore was sued by 30,000 scientists for his global warming lies and his scheme to keep global warming skeptics from having their voices heard in the media!
Why do so many Americans hate America? I can only assume Al Gore has a secret brain wave device that every night sucks energy and any ability to think rationality out of Americans while they watch TV. In short, Al Gore is this guy:
Yes, Al Gore is actually the Riddler. But there’s still hope. All we need to do is find that bat signal and call Batman out of retirement. Then this horrible brain washing by the liberal media can be brought to an end, and we can go back to driving our Hummers again. I’m sure Senator Lisa Murkowski knows where to find it.
And here I thought Obama was the Muslim plant. Heads will explode.
Ohmigawd! Muslims are converting plants now! How soon before my lawn rises up and declares a fatwa against me? Ot release a cloud of toxic organic material (pollen anyone?) in a bioterrorist assault on my nasal passages?
Blanche Lincoln is on the senate floor right now defending the Murkowski amendment to strip the EPA of its powers to regulate air quality.
Yes but … she’s not a Republican at least. So that makes it a matter of principle for her.
And I’m a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln.
I like to trace the trajectory of ‘these’ peculiar ideas, such as the fluoride myth that the John Birch society promulgated in 1959 and recently resurfaced in Nevada, where the current Republican candidate for the US Senate was pushing it again.
My understanding is that the ‘strip the EPA of its enforcement capacity’ movement seems to have started (among other places) with the ‘tort reform’ movement in the 90s, which was by the tobacco companies, after the EPA ruling on 2nd hand smoke.
Many of these ideas have several incarnations but the impetus for an idea’s popularity can often be traced to a particular disinformation campaign.
http://www.centerjd.org/archives/issues-facts/MB08_Tobacco.pdf
I’m pretty sure Americans are also in favor of high-tailing it out of central asia, jacking up taxes on the wealthy, putting the bankerboyz in jail, etc. This is why the public interest can’t be allowed anywhere near government, cause that might possibly interrupt it’s lavish corporate coddling.
The poll also showed that they’re against doing anything about it.
I’m going to quote David Roberts from Grist:
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-09-new-poll-shows-again-public-likes-clean-energy-doesnt-like-t
axes/
Basically, my main point is this: I don’t care what the public thinks. This is why we have elected leaders. I care about their leadership, not about Joe Schmoe’s opinion. I didn’t find it to be a very convincing argument in favor of the public option to say that the public supported it unless some idiot said “Americans don’t want it!”
We have elected leaders to lead. Now I want them to do it.