Global warming at the bottom of people's priorities

[Nederland]

http://people-press.org/report/584/policy-priorities-2010

[slackmaster]

1. It's January

'nuff said.

[phantom power]

2. When one is trying to keep one's family out of a refrigerator box...

there is less emotional energy available for contemplating climate change.

[The2ndWheel]

3. Couldn't be anywhere else

[amborin]

4. fed by Rupert Murdoch's media, among others n/t

[YankeyMCC]

5. Moral decline?!

... the lesson, the reality, is that not responding to our impact on the climate and ecology and the suffering it is causing, is immoral.

[Mojorabbit]

6. AT least helping the poor rated over 50% nt

[Kablooie]

7. Not surprising. People want today's problems solved, not tomorrow's. As always.

Global warming is not destroying people's lives at the moment.
It will in the coming decades and once it starts visibly doing that the priority will increase.

The fact that then it may be too late to do anything is not a factor in people's assessments.

[RainDog]

8. the reason is because people feel their present is threatened by economic problems

there are lots of people out there looking for work or working in jobs for which they are over qualified. some have stopped looking for work and are trying other ways to survive - but small business ownership is not easy at this time. it really depends on the biz.

so, people are, yes, selfish and shortsighted.

but people are also afraid of the loss of their jobs.

when economies improve and people have jobs that pay a living wage, they can then look beyond their immediate concerns.

It always seems to be the case, in history, that big problems such as this have to be dealt with sometimes without the approval of a majority...like segregation in the south.

some things are not going to happen with the mindset of the people turned against the right action.

it's sad to live through this time. the U.S. seems to be ungovernable in many ways and I place the blame for that entirely with the republican party. If they didn't pander to idiots, we would have a better nation. but they do and so we don't.

[XemaSab]

9. Environment and energy are higher on the list

Hell, in my own informal polls here, climate change was not the sine qua non of energy policy.