Global warming – the political divide
Is smoking a leading cause of lung disease? Do El Nino episodes cause weather changes? Did widespread use of DDT cause major reduction of bird and fish populations in affected areas?
If a survey asked these questions today, the results would show an overwhelming majority of people in agreement. Among scientists, there would be almost no doubters. However, each of these propositions was initially met with strong, vocal, and emotional reactions from skeptics – many of whom owed their livelihoods and reputations to denying them.
Today, there is virtual unanimity among scientists about global warming. The National Academy of Sciences, American Chemical Society, Crop Science Society, and many other scientific organizations have issued public statements confirming that global warming is occurring and is the result of human activity.
In spite of this, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows the number of Americans who believe there is solid evidence of global warming has actually dropped in the last three years. A majority of Americans simply do not believe the scientific organizations.
Here is the data by political affiliation. Belief in global warming has declined across the board, but the decline has been dramatic among Republicans. Nearly half of the Republicans who in 2006 believed the earth was warming no longer believe so.
Just shows what can happen when a scientific issue becomes a political and emotional one. It is clear there are a number of highly effective communicators in the US whose livelihood and reputation depend on debunking global warming. As Upton Sinclair wrote: ”It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”.
In the midst of the Copenhagen climate change meetings, I’ll be posting a few thoughts on climate change. Next post will be fairly heavy on data. In the meantime, I encourage you to look at some data yourself. A couple of good places to start are the IPCC Summary and the National Academy of Sciences climate change report.
