Global Warming: Why Americans Are In Denial

[marmar]

NEW YORK (AP) — Tucked between treatises on algae and prehistoric turquoise beads, the study on page 460 of a long-ago issue of the U.S. journal Science drew little attention.

"I don't think there were any newspaper articles about it or anything like that," the author recalls.

But the headline on the 1975 report was bold: "Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?" And this article that coined the term may have marked the last time a mention of "global warming" didn't set off an instant outcry of angry denial.

In the paper, Columbia University geoscientist Wally Broecker calculated how much carbon dioxide would accumulate in the atmosphere in the coming 35 years, and how temperatures consequently would rise. His numbers have proven almost dead-on correct. Meanwhile, other powerful evidence poured in over those decades, showing the "greenhouse effect" is real and is happening. And yet resistance to the idea among many in the U.S. appears to have hardened. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/24/global-warming-why-americans-deny_n_979177.html

[w0nderer]

1. k&r n/t

[MADem]

2. Include me out!

I'm not in denial--I remember what the weather was like a half century ago!

[fascisthunter]

3. corporate media has misinformed americans for too long

time for a peaceful revolution... let the meatheads try to stop us.

[radhika]

4. Americans think what they are told to think....

by churches
by end-timers jazzed about annihilation
by corporations
by RW media mocking and denying science
by main stream media for not wasting sponsor time on this subject

We are Americans. We don't waste NO time on independent learning.

[The Croquist]

6. I couldn't disagree more

It is the believers in AGW that don't think for themselves.

Did you ever bother to look at the data, especially the quality of the data? The data sucks yet I'm told, time after time, that I'm insulted for questioning the data.

Are you aware that about 93% of the 1,200 or so surface stations in the "lower" 48 states fail minimal standards? Do you think that's significant?

Are you aware that the current sea level rise is half of what the 20,000 years average rise has been? Do you think that's significant?

Are you aware that the climate models from 20 years ago grossly overestimated temperature increases? Do you think that's significant?

[radhika]

7. I'm aware of the data disputes, theoretical issues...

but that doesn't change my opinion of Americans.

If the anti-AGW memes and arguments weren't being spoon-fed to them by corporate, theocratic, anti-science forces, they wouldn't even think about this topic.

[binarysunrise]

5. Evolution

You could probably do a comparable study showing a decline in Americans' belief in evolution over the same time period.