Only 57% of Americans believe there is solid scientific evidence that the Earth's atmosphere is warming, said a recent poll of 1,500 people by the Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press.
That is a fall of 77% from 2007. The number of people who believe that human activity is causing global warming also fell to just 36%.
Just to put that in perspective about a third of Americans believe in ghosts (34 percent) and UFOs (34 percent), and about a quarter believe in astrology (29 percent), reincarnation (25 percent) and witches (24 percent). ie between a quarter and a third of Americans will believe in any old crazy crap.
James Hoggan, a PR executive and author of Climate Cover-Up, blamed an intense lobbying campaign against global warming legislation now before the Senate. "I would say a big part of this problem is this campaign to mislead Americans about climate science," he said. "This is a very sophisticated group of people who know how to create doubt and confusion and they have done a very good job of it."
1 comment:
*sigh* I suppose it also doesn't help that climate is hard to model, study, predict, and all of the above. So how does one explain chaotic system dynamics to people and why group A's model differs from group B's (it also helps to try to communicate things in a manner a seventh grader would comprehend).
I sometimes find that although at times the general public looks at scientist as those that know everything, and though it generates veneration, often times when we admit things are still not known or we lack the technological capabilities to refine our current findings, we come across as frauds or incompetent, like we let humanity down, when in reality identifying such gaps in knowledge is as scientific as apple pie is American.
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