Environmental Issues Slide in Poll of Public's Concerns

[struggle4progress]

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: January 22, 2009

... In the poll, released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, global warming came in last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists. Only 30 percent of the voters deemed global warming to be “a top priority,” compared with 35 percent in 2008.

“Protecting the environment,” which had surged in the rankings from 2006 to 2008, dropped even more precipitously in the poll: only 41 percent of voters called it a top priority, compared with 56 percent last year.

In contrast, dealing with the nation’s energy problems ranked sixth in the poll — just behind education and social security — with 60 percent of voters endorsing it as a top priority.

The declining interest in global warming and other environmental issues might be unsurprising at a time when Americans face far more imminent threats to their jobs and homes. “Strengthening the nation’s economy” was the top-ranked concern of voters in the Pew poll ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/science/earth/23warm.html?ref=us

[Radical Activist]

1. What percentage say we need to address global warming?

It's interesting how they choose to phrase poll questions and what information they leave out.

[struggle4progress]

2. I always suspect the pollster has done comparative polling in order to have something

to sell later:

Cycle randomly:
Would you support federal bureaucrats cutting off your air conditioner in the summer in order to prevent beach erosion in Micronesia?
Do you support international efforts to save penguins?
Is climate change a serious problem?

[Ken Burch]

3. "would you rather clothe and house your family, or save a cartoon polar bear from drowning?"

"Do you support North Korean robodupe Al Gore's crusade for envirostalinist homoslavery, or the right of free Christians in traditional marriages to avoid famine?"

Yeah, it was probably questions like that.

:eyes:

[tom_paine]

4. ROFLMAO! That's a fucking DUzy!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I hope that merely by mentioning this, when they go to make the week's DUzys that they search for keywords that will take them here!

And I thought I spoke fluent Hannidiot!

The funniest thing is that is so ludicrous as to be insane, which is what makes it funny, but I can almost guarantee you that you could post that at FReikorps in complete seriousness and get a dozen serious(ly insane) replies in a half-hour.

Almost without question.

"Envirostalinist Homoslavery"

I could close my eyes and think I was at FReikorps right now.

Thanks...dick.

:sarcasm:

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[struggle4progress]

6. My apologies if I did not make my point clearly:

I responded to a post that remarked on the curious phrasing of questions reported from polls

It is my suspicion that such curious phrasing might be explained as follows: the pollsters are asking the same question in various ways, to compare the reaction of the public to different phrasings -- and then only the results from a single version are being reported

Professional pollsters may make money by providing advice, to a variety of clients, on the reactions of the public to particular ways of spinning issues: for this, they need comparative data, and therefore they may may collect results for a variety of phrasings

I attempted to illustrate that idea with a caricature

[Ken Burch]

7. And I meant no disrespect to your point.

I was simply letting my imagination run wild.

[struggle4progress]

8. I actually thought your remark hilarious -- but cryptic

:shrug: Such is life, here in the vast tubes of the internets

[Uncle Joe]

5. This was the hidden success of the Cheney/Bush Administration.

By totally trashing the economy, giving tax cuts to the wealthiest while blowing up the budget, thus melting the dollar, by waging a costly, ill-managed, premeditated, unnecessary war with Iraq to benefit crony war profiteers, by allowing Wall Street corruption to run rampant with the inevitable result of the people and institutions losing vast quantities of money, by allowing their corporate oil masters to rape, pillage and plunder the American People at the pump, they managed to reduce the American People's concern with the greatest threat against humanity's existence, bar none.

Some people might claim all out nuclear war or a massive asteroid strike poses a greater threat but I view the case of either happening against much greater odds. Global warming climate change is happening, accelerating in pace; cold winter or not, and no concrete steps on a macro level have been taken to reverse this dynamic as of yet.

So in reducing the American People's concern with an issue which threatened the livelihood of the previous administration's primary corporate benefactors, by making the rest of life so miserable; Cheney/Bush have been wildly successful. No other puppet has a greater claim to glory.