Americans' belief in global warming cools

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence the Earth is warming because of pollution is at its lowest point in three years, according to a survey released Thursday.

The number of Americans who, when polled, claim to believe in UFOs and alien abductions is also mind numbing and jaw dropping.

It doesn't necessarily make it so. People believe all kinds of #######. And disbelieve all kinds of fundamentally true and provable things.

Perhaps there should be a minimal test before you vote, to determine if you can actually comprehend the issues being discussed.

[scandal 951]

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence the Earth is warming because of pollution is at its lowest point in three years, according to a survey released Thursday.

The number of Americans who, when polled, claim to believe in UFOs and alien abductions is also mind numbing and jaw dropping.

It doesn't necessarily make it so. People believe all kinds of #######. And disbelieve all kinds of fundamentally true and provable things.

Perhaps there should be a minimal test before you vote, to determine if you can actually comprehend the issues being discussed.

Nope. That's called baiting and is suitable when fishing for walleyes but not gonna work here.

The vote is deservedly given to every illiterate mope over 18. That's what makes our democracy great and gives us heroic and noble leaders like dubyah. Wouldn't have it any other way!

It doesn't change the fact that a majority of Americans believe humans descend from Adam and Eve and are not the result of hundreds of millions of years of natural selection.

It also doesn't change the fact that many Americans believe that little green men are hiding out in Area 51.

Or that more Americans vote for American Idol than vote for President.

Just trying to put into perspective what polling results of the American population mean.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

The little men in Area 51 are not green. I have seen and talked to them many times.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence the Earth is warming because of pollution is at its lowest point in three years, according to a survey released Thursday.

The number of Americans who, when polled, claim to believe in UFOs and alien abductions is also mind numbing and jaw dropping.

It doesn't necessarily make it so. People believe all kinds of #######. And disbelieve all kinds of fundamentally true and provable things.

Perhaps there should be a minimal test before you vote, to determine if you can actually comprehend the issues being discussed.

Nope. That's called baiting and is suitable when fishing for walleyes but not gonna work here.

The vote is deservedly given to every illiterate mope over 18. That's what makes our democracy great and gives us heroic and noble leaders like dubyah. Wouldn't have it any other way!

It doesn't change the fact that a majority of Americans believe humans descend from Adam and Eve and are not the result of hundreds of millions of years of natural selection.

It also doesn't change the fact that many Americans believe that little green men are hiding out in Area 51.

Or that more Americans vote for American Idol than vote for President.

Just trying to put into perspective what polling results of the American population mean.

Perception is reality. No matter how scientifically you examine the Universe, you are not going to change that. And, being a bit of a philosopher and a mystic, as well, I can tell you, science only sees what it wants to see, the same as the unwashed masses.

[scandal 951]

Perception is reality. No matter how scientifically you examine the Universe, you are not going to change that. And, being a bit of a philosopher and a mystic, as well, I can tell you, science only sees what it wants to see, the same as the unwashed masses.

Perception is not reality.

Perception matters- a great deal. I have no doubts about that. I'm not saying it's unimportant that Americans have misguided opinions about such subjects, including global warming. Polls like this have a direct effect on political support and budgets allocated for important research on these topics. Hence the lobbying efforts to attempt to persuade people of such issues.

However, perception is NOT reality. To confuse the two and suggest they are the same is preposterous.

[alienlovechild 75]

Why resort to experts when we can all interpret significant data as we see fit?!?!

GHG causes global warming.

GHG have been going up since the Industrial Revolution.

Therefore, global temperatures will steadily rise, except nobody told the Earth that and there's been years of cooling that the environmentalists want to ignore. If their model doesn't account for it, then no wonder there are a lot of skeptics.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

However, perception is NOT reality. To confuse the two and suggest they are the same is preposterous.

But that is merely your perception of how you perceive things.

[scandal 951]

However, perception is NOT reality. To confuse the two and suggest they are the same is preposterous.

But that is merely your perception of how you perceive things.

Silence, Bostoner!

Intelligent people are weighing in on important matters.

You are merely an illiterate who doesn't get a vote here.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

However, perception is NOT reality. To confuse the two and suggest they are the same is preposterous.

But that is merely your perception of how you perceive things.

Silence, Bostoner!

Intelligent people are weighing in on important matters.

You are merely an illiterate who doesn't get a vote here.

I resemble that remark.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Perception is reality. No matter how scientifically you examine the Universe, you are not going to change that. And, being a bit of a philosopher and a mystic, as well, I can tell you, science only sees what it wants to see, the same as the unwashed masses.

Perception is not reality.

Perception matters- a great deal. I have no doubts about that. I'm not saying it's unimportant that Americans have misguided opinions about such subjects, including global warming. Polls like this have a direct effect on political support and budgets allocated for important research on these topics. Hence the lobbying efforts to attempt to persuade people of such issues.

However, perception is NOT reality. To confuse the two and suggest they are the same is preposterous.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Your development has been denied! I am so sorry for you.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Truth only requires an unrelenting belief:

—“that any human being, even though practically devoid of natural facilities, can penetrate to the kingdom of truth reserved for genius, if only he longs for truth and perpetually concentrates all his attention upon its attainment.” One does not need to be brilliant, in Weil’s view, to obtain the deepest level of understanding. In this realm of deepest understanding reserved for geniuses and those most devoted, lies truth. For Weil, this truth is a gift given on the condition that we don’t use it in this world.

http://pages.slc.edu/~eraymond/ccorner/exchange/matros.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

[HAL 9000 96]

Given Dave's last account for a climate model's apparent failure (although it isn't a failure) to model weather patterns... I return to my previous set of posts that have been echoed by Mr Scandal. People will apparently discredit anything they show to not understand.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The Truth About Denial

(this is from a Newsweek article from 2 years ago, but still relevant)

If you think those who have long challenged the mainstream scientific findings about global warming recognize that the game is over, think again. Yes, 19 million people watched the "Live Earth" concerts last month, titans of corporate America are calling for laws mandating greenhouse cuts, "green" magazines fill newsstands, and the film based on Al Gore's best-selling book, "An Inconvenient Truth," won an Oscar. But outside Hollywood, Manhattan and other habitats of the chattering classes, the denial machine is running at full throttle—and continuing to shape both government policy and public opinion.

Since the late 1980s, this well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change. Through advertisements, op-eds, lobbying and media attention, greenhouse doubters (they hate being called deniers) argued first that the world is not warming; measurements indicating otherwise are flawed, they said. Then they claimed that any warming is natural, not caused by human activities. Now they contend that the looming warming will be minuscule and harmless. "They patterned what they did after the tobacco industry," says former senator Tim Wirth, who spearheaded environmental issues as an under secretary of State in the Clinton administration. "Both figured, sow enough doubt, call the science uncertain and in dispute. That's had a huge impact on both the public and Congress."

Just last year, polls found that 64 percent of Americans thought there was "a lot" of scientific disagreement on climate change; only one third thought planetary warming was "mainly caused by things people do." In contrast, majorities in Europe and Japan recognize a broad consensus among climate experts that greenhouse gases—mostly from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas to power the world's economies—are altering climate. A new NEWSWEEK Poll finds that the influence of the denial machine remains strong. Although the figure is less than in earlier polls, 39 percent of those asked say there is "a lot of disagreement among climate scientists" on the basic question of whether the planet is warming; 42 percent say there is a lot of disagreement that human activities are a major cause of global warming. Only 46 percent say the greenhouse effect is being felt today.

As a result of the undermining of the science, all the recent talk about addressing climate change has produced little in the way of actual action.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/32482

............

Karl Rove was right...

Edited October 23, 2009 by Col. 'Bat' Guano