Why we’re so blase about global warming … If you don’t regard global warming as a serious problem, your company is growing. According to the survey jockeys at Pew Research Center, the percentage of Americans who think global warming is “very serious” or “somewhat serious” has declined since 2006 (from 79 percent to 65 percent). While a firm majority still considers global warming to be very or somewhat serious, the numbers show that public alarm over the topic has receded over a period during which the scientific, journalistic, and political consensus on the topic has surged the other way. – Reuters
Dominant Social Theme: People don’t care about the biggest threat to the planet? That doesn’t make any sense.
Free-Market Analysis: Reuters is astonished that people aren’t so worried about global warming as they used to be. The editorial excerpted above spends a lot of time trying to figure out why this is so.
Of course, maybe people are less worried because they have decided the threat has been exaggerated. That’s the one alternative that the article resolutely does NOT examine.
Here’s more:
… Fewer respondents agree that the earth is warming and fewer agree that human activity causes warming. These figures must give cognitive whiplash to those who dismiss the public as a herd of easily driven sheep.
The scientific establishment, the press, and politicians have a flimsy grasp of mass opinion. Americans’ blas and wishy-washy attitudes toward global warming may be related to the positive short-term effects of environmental policies that they observe daily.
This post was published at The Daily Bell on September 02, 2014.
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