Pew Research, It Really Is The Economy & RIP Cap and Trade.

[MyUncle]

Source: Pew Research

The Public's Political Agenda
January 25, 2010

As Barack Obama begins his second year in office, the public's priorities for the president and Congress remain much as they were one year ago. Strengthening the nation's economy and improving the job situation continue to top the list. And, in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, defending the country from future terrorist attacks also remains a top priority.


Read more: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1472/public-priorities-president-congress-2010

---

Dead FREAKING LAST for Global Warming in terms of what we are worried about.

ANYTHING that does not focus on jobs is going to be politically risky. Right/wrong aside,

I need a job.

I NEED A JOB.

I AM UNEMPLOYED AND I NEED A JOB.

IS ANYBODY LISTENING, I NEED A JOB.

[mvd]

1. I hear you; I haven't even attempted to get a job right now

I REALLY hope there's something in Obama's speech that helps us out.

[Arctic Dave]

2. So much for the Green Economy creating jobs and lowering green house gases.

[abelenkpe]

3. Green economy could provide jobs.

What the hell else are we gonna do? Resurrect the FIRE economy?

[Lorien]

23. Exactly. But green jobs equals energy independence and less profit for the fossil fuel

barons, hence we drive the bottom 90% into grinding poverty and kill life on earth to preserve the portfolios of Billionaires in the short term.

[Nihil]

38. You've got that right!

> hence we drive the bottom 90% into grinding poverty and kill life on earth
> to preserve the portfolios of Billionaires in the short term.

:nuke:

[sandnsea]

4. Fixing Global Warming is the future of jobs

Who did they poll? Why don't people understand this?

[NewJeffCT]

9. It hasn't been promoted that way

the only thing most people have heard is about those scientists' emails where they claimed to have fixed the data with a special trick. I've heard very little from the WH or Democrats in Congress on it - and, outside of that small bastion of liberal media (Schulz, Olbermann & Maddow), how often is it in the media in a positive way?

Remember, Kyoto was voted down in the Senate by like 95-0 in the late 90s, and that was when the economy was going good.

[sandnsea]

12. I live in Oregon, it's all we do

I would have thought CT would be the same way. If not, maybe that's why you still have Lieberman.

Seriously, literally EVERYBODY here is looking at alternative energy and green job training as the way forward.

[customerserviceguy]

10. It's simple

Concerns about global warming (and any other things colored green) are merely luxuries that are seen as affordable when you are not worried about putting food on the table, a roof over your head, and clothes on your back.

[sandnsea]

13. Again, not in Oregon

You're in New York? I thought it was a liberal state. We've got wind energy plants, wave energy trials, a solar lighting project for I-5, several green training programs, alternative energy outdoor equipment, all kinds of things. You implement the things in your home, you get help from several programs and you save money.

[MyUncle]

17. I've lived in NY, CA and HI

The energy needs of a vast dense metropolis like NY dwarf anything on the West side of our country.

They also do not have have an abundance of nearby open rural space and a climate that would lend itself to solar and wind in a big way. The big cities in the north east NEED nuclear or fossil fuel capacity to sustain themselves.

There are incremental savings that can be had, that will limit the need for large scale new power plants, but even though the desire is there for alternatives, the alternatives are very limited. Kind of like the lyric "you know you're over the hill when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill".

[sandnsea]

25. Solar Tube Lighting

Massive energy savings. Buildings are the biggest contributor to green house gasses in the US. Retrofit them, modernize them, lots can be done and it will create lots of jobs. We did it with the internet, we can do it with alternative energy.

[customerserviceguy]

18. I'm just describing the majority of Americans

And I'm from the Northwest (moved here from WA less than three years ago), so I'm a bit nostalgic for the way things are there, especially Oregon. Your post just made me a bit more sad that I moved here...

I thought NY was progressive, too, outside of NYC, it really isn't that way so much, besides a college town here and there.

[sandnsea]

26. Then you've got a mega-opportunity!

Dig into the federal energy funding for New York and start a retrofitting company.

[Imajika]

5. Cap and Trade is a nonstarter...

It has no chance at all. We won't see it again as an issue till 2013 - and that assumes Obama is re-elected.

Copenhagen has come and gone and nothing was accomplished, and the US public has no interest in the issue. Without the US, there will be no global agreements on combating climate change.

[Quixote1818]

7. Global Warming becomes a bigger issue when the economy is doing well

Everything becomes secondary to the economy and jobs in a downturn.

[Imajika]

8. Your right, but unemployment in the US will be high....

..for years to come, even under the best estimates.

With that in mind, I don't see how Cap and Trade goes anywhere till at least 2013. Honestly, I don't think anything will ever really be done about climate change, but if we get something it would be 2013 at the soonest in my opinion.

[Quixote1818]

29. When Rush Limbaugh's Florida house is under water then climate change legislation

will kick into high gear for sure. It won't matter that small islands are being covered up or droughts in Africa. We will have to feel it here for people to wake the fuck up. If we break the temperature record this year, at least they won't be able to say the world is cooling anymore. That will help some but as you said, unemployment will need to turn around and then things like the environment and health care will be more winnable.

[bertman]

6. One freakin' idjit with explosives is ALLOWED on an airliner and VOILA! security from

terrrorists is Number TWO on the hit parade. How gullible are we? How long will this Terror--Fear--Be Very Afraid campaign cause us to stop seeing the real dangers our world faces??!!!

[twitomy]

15. Yes, when a mere "ijit" can do that despite the best efforts,

or lack thereof by our government whose number one job is to protect its citizens,and nearly kill hundreds, terrorism WILL become a number 2 issue in short order.

[bertman]

20. My point was that the idjit was LET through. Isn't it just coincidental as hell that every

time it seems like these "terror attacks" have subsided we get another fresh one? Couldn't possibly have anything to do with needing to scare the piss out of the public so they'll keep funding these mindless, bottomless "security" budgets, could it?

After all, how many of OUR INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES failed to do their jobs in this instance? The largest intelligence budget and outfit on the freakin' planet.

Oh, never mind.

[twitomy]

34. Well we know he was "let through"

and yes that is scary. But to suggest it was some sort of diabolical plot is something else. I usually dont subscribe to those conspiracy theorys unless I see some solid evidence. I hardly think Obama would do this, nor Bush for that matter. Seems to me the old Occams razor does the job: The reason it keeps happening is becasue the terrorist keep trying. The reason this guy almost pulled it off was because of a grotesque bureacracy run by bumbling idiots. But I always remain open-minded to consider evidence that points elsewhere should it ever surface.

[bertman]

40. Considering the fact that our Intelligence Services operate in EVERY major city of every nation

on the planet. Considering the fact that these are the folks who can spot a pimple on a camel's ass in Azerbaijan via satellite technology. Considering the fact that it is the SOLE function of these people to protect us from terrorists who, by the way, have been known on MULTIPLE occasions to board aircraft bound for the U.S. of A. from foreign airports. Considering that they seem to have adopted the "we'll deal with every different situation AFTER it has occurred instead of preemptively working with our allies from the gitgo" method of security. Considering all of this, I no longer believe that these "incidents" are due to the infinite creativity of Nigerian lost youth or the stealthy skills of would-be bombers like Richard Reid.

They are due to the well-planned and well-executed efforts of our intelligence community to ignore procedures that at least one other nation has successfully used for decades--our ally, Israel.

How long would the American taxpayers willingly give boxcar loads of money to intelligence agencies if there were not some "terrorists" who hated our freedoms?

Does anyone remember what happened to the "Peace Dividend" we were about to reap after the Soviet Union dissolved and became a global non-threat to us? It lasted until President George Herbert Walker Bush decided that we needed another major threat to deal with so he invaded Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. We Americans were actually asking our President to reduce the money that we spent on national "defense" before that great threat to America arose in the Middle East. Of course, after we discovered that the tyrannical dictator Saddam Hussein had a million man army and twenty Russian Panzer divisions that were massing on the U.S. border for an imminent attack, we all rallied and opened our pocketbooks to the thieves at Langley and the Pentagon. And the White House.

[yurbud]

11. cap & trade is a scam. Why not just cap and ENFORCE?

[Imajika]

14. Well, that is the best we are going to get...

BTU taxes, Carbon Taxes, etc, etc will never pass. Ever.

So it's going to be a market based Cap and Trade program or nothing at all.

Probably nothing at all. I've never believed the American public would ever sacrifice much, or anything at all, to combat AGW.

[yurbud]

31. that seems to be the DLC's mantra: eat shit or die of starvation

[avaistheone1]

33. Yup.

[notesdev]

16. Nobody is going to enforce in China

And given that they are the #1 polluter and growing fast, anyone who is serious about global warming ought to be focusing over there.

The fact that so few are shows how unserious the Warmers really are.

[MyUncle]

19. I am confused by the assertion of Pew that Global Warming

is so low on people's list of concerns.



Is it because I care about it (selective perception) that I see a lot of information, news and coverage about it?

I am under the assumption that this was a priority for the Obama administration. If I am right and it is a priority, I see a further disconnect with the "will of the people".

I need a job, but I also need a planet.

[Lorien]

22. No planet does indeed = no job. But Americns have a tough time thinking past

next week. Hey, I'M unemployed and on the verge of losing all of my belongings and any chance of health care, but climate change still TOPS my list because I know what the science is, and the timetable is terrifying.

[notesdev]

24. It's debunked fear

Global Warming is and was always about scaring people for money.

It's good to be concerned about the well-being of the planet. We should strive for clean water, air, and soil. But the Global Warming "climate change" elites are interested in two things only: power and money. You can tell, because they go after people with money - the first world - even though the worst polluters are in the places we shipped all our industry to. Not one of these people is willing to stand up to the Chinese, and the lack of courage in their convictions is damning to their stated intent.

[Lorien]

28. My best friend's dad has studied climate change in Antarctica for 47 years. It's a more

serious threat to us than 99% of Americans realize. The governments of the world won't listen to climate scientists; reality doesn't jive with corporate owned government agendas that are dependent on maintaining the status quo. If you can't grasp the fact that the fossil fuel barons, investor classes and mega corps of the world NEED us to be dependent on their drug to remain in power, then you are entirely lost to the corporate Right Wing spin machine. He who controls the world's energy control the world. Renewable green energy gets cheap very fast once put into place. They won't allow us anything that they can't charge us through the nose for.

[bread_and_roses]

36. The "first world" has money because it stole the resources of the earth and polluted for 150 yrs

without restraint. It stole the resources from every country on earth - using Imperialist oppression rising to brutal murder, genocide, absolute impoverishment of populations, etc etc etc. But now THOSE peoples that we've oppressed for hundreds of years must be the first to sacrifice so we can continue "the lifestyle to which we are accustomed" still at their expense?

And just who are these "climate change elites" who are going after "people with power and money?" The scientists? Which of them is getting rich - I mean really rich, like upper 1% (the only level of wealth that really matters, since that strata controls everything) - from their science? What about all the every-day environmentalists in all walks of life? You think we're "elites?"

What agenda are you pushing here anyway?

[ronnie624]

41. That poster is a hoot. n/t

[Nihil]

39. You still here? The lies you peddle have been debunked so many times.

> Global Warming is and was always about scaring people for money.

Bullshit. The only people being "scared" are those who directly
profit from the fossil fuel industry. You know a bit about that.


> "climate change" elites are interested in two things only: power and money.

If there was such a thing as a "climate change elite" (never mind
having more than one of them) then it would be very interesting to
read your "evidence" of their driving force.

On the other hand, the driving force for the current top 5% is very
well known - as is their habit of funding astroturfers to support them.


> You can tell, because they go after people with money - the first
> world - even though the worst polluters are in the places we shipped
> all our industry to.

You know it is almost funny to see you pretending that because you have
outsourced some of your largest polluting industries to other countries
that you are somehow not responsible for the effects of your gross
neverending consumption.

Unfortunately, the humour is diluted by the knowledge that some gullible
idiots will believe all of your shit ... and still pray to their gods
when the consequences become unavoidable for even them.

[bread_and_roses]

42. well said (n/t)

[bread_and_roses]

35. And the US still emits almost 4x the carbon dioxide as China per capita

So we should worry about only China and not our own gluttonous use of the world's energy and resources?

China has JUST passed US in total greenhouse gas emissions - after US being the leader for something like 150 years and you want to blame everything on China and think that we can't do anything if China is the leader? What Kindergarden did you escape from to come here?

And what's with "the Warmers" language?

[Lorien]

21. And climate change waits for no one. Try getting a job when you can'y grow food

or for that matter, breathe.

[libforeva]

27. Iam all ears

When they start practicing what they preach. Iam down to 30 hours right now and the only thing getting cheaper is electronic gadgets.

Give me some of that stimulus and my own private jet. Till then cant afford my heating and fuel costs going up.

I"ll take a $500 pair of sneakers too lol.

[WhiteTara]

30. there are no jobs on a dead planet. n/t

[krkaufman]

32. "much as they were one year ago"

"the public's priorities for the president and Congress remain much as they were one year ago"

Yeah, probably because so little has been accomplished in the last year. Frickin' sad.

[alarimer]

37. We HAVE to do something about global warming and we have to do it NOW.

There is a tipping point and we will reach it soon, after which it will no longer matter what we do because we will be doomed. Then your job or mine will not matter either.

I am not sure cap and trade is the answer but it is probably a start. We need to drastically reduce the amount of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere and we need to do it NOW. That means immediately raising CAFE standards to 30 mpg at least. I think we should also fine people for not carpooling. A huge initiative into building public transportation would also help with the jobs. It creates more jobs than building or repairing highways.