Global Warming Skepticism on Rise in U.S.; One in Two Accept Man-Made Climate Change

One in Two Accept Man-Made Climate Change

Nearly one in two voters believes there is no proof that mankind is causing global warming, according to a new opinion poll.

December 5, 2009

Telegraph - The ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph will dismay proponents of "man-made" climate change – including leading scientists and the majority of world governments – as they gather in Copenhagen for the landmark climate summit.

Asked if they backed the main conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that humans are largely responsible for modern day rises in temperatures, 52 per cent of voters agreed.

However, 39 per cent said climate change had not yet been proven to be man made, while seven per cent simply denied the phenomenon was happening at all. Furthermore, fewer than one in four voters (23 per cent) believed that climate change was "the most serious problem faced by man" – a view endorsed by governments across the world.

A clear majority (58 per cent) said it was merely "one of a number of serious problems" while 17 per cent believed it has been exaggerated and is "not a very serious problem."

The survey follows the recent raising of tensions between proponents of man-made climate change, which is the prevailing scientific view, and those who take a more sceptical stance. The IPCC has said it will launch an investigation after the online publication of emails and other material stolen from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in the so-called "climategate" affair. Climate change sceptics claim the material shows that the evidence used to support man-made global warming has been manipulated.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that Professor Phil Jones, who headed the CRU and who has stood aside after the leak of the emails, has received more than £13 million in funding for his research.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice chairman of the IPCC, said it was possible Russian hackers had been paid as part of a global conspiracy to cast doubt on the science of global warming. "I do not think this is a coincidence," he added.

Gordon Brown, who will attend the two-week, 192-nation Copenhagen summit, denounced "the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics" who challenged the prevailing view.

David Cameron has also put tackling climate change high on the Conservative agenda – although his party is home to some prominent sceptics. David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, has hit out at "the fixation of the green movement with setting ever tougher targets."

The ICM poll showed Tory voters were less likely to agree with the prevailing scientific view on man-made global warming (47 per cent) than either Labour supporters (58 per cent) or Liberal Democrats (57 per cent).

Lord Stern, the British government's leading adviser, has warned that 10 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions must be taken out of the atmosphere by 2020. So far agreement is in place for only half of that amount – but chances of a landmark deal at Copenhagen, where President Barack Obama will also attend, appear slim.

Despite the drive to do a deal to cut emissions at Copenhagen its is estimated that there will be around 1,200 limousines on the city's road this week – of which just five will be either electric cars or hybrids. Copenhagen's main airport, furthermore, says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets.

Climate Change Protesters Take to London Streets

December 5, 2009

Tri-City Herald - Thousands of people calling for a deal on climate change at next week's United Nations conference in Copenhagen marched through central London on Saturday, encircling the Houses of Parliament in a human wave of blue-clad demonstrators.

London's Metropolitan Police said about 20,000 people joined the Stop Climate Chaos march, which began at Grosvenor Square and wound its way to the Parliament building on the River Thames. Organizers put the turnout at 40,000.

"We wanted to make a positive statement," said retired teacher Pip Cartwright, 72, from Witney southern England. "It's for the future. It's not my generation that's going to have the problem to solve."

The coalition - which includes groups such as Oxfam, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the WWF - called the protest "The Wave," and organizers asked marchers to dress in blue. The march ended with a mass "wave" around Parliament. Thousands more people attended climate protests in Glasgow and Belfast, as well as in European cities including Brussels, Paris and Dublin.

"The U.K. government must fight for a comprehensive, fair and binding deal at Copenhagen - that is our demand today and we expect it to be fulfilled," Oxfam GB chief executive Barbara Stocking said in a statement. "They must return home with a strong, effective climate deal both for our own sakes in the U.K. and for the millions of poor people already suffering from the effects of climate change around the world."

Also on Saturday, Britain's Met Office said it would publish some of the data it uses to analyze climate change, after thousands of pieces of correspondence between some of the world's leading climate scientists were stolen from the University of East Anglia and leaked to the Internet. Skeptics of man-made global warming say the mails prove that scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence about climate change.

On Friday, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, said the issue raised by the e-mails was serious and would be looked at in detail.

Most climate scientists say their content has no bearing on the principles of climate change itself, but the leak - just before the Copenhagen summit - has been politically explosive.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday that "the scientific evidence is strong" and it was essential for a deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen.

He said those opposing action were "anti-change, anti-science, anti-reform, almost flat-Earth" groups...

Global Warming Skepticism on Rise in U.S.

December 3, 2009

Reuters - Sharon Byers is unconvinced that human activities such as the burning of coal and other fossil fuels are behind climate change.

"There have been times in the past when there was global warming in the absence of man. It is all part of a natural cycle. I think it is a little vain to think man could destroy this great planet," said Byers, a former nurse who lives in Lee's Summit, Missouri.

In the U.S. heartland, global warming talk is often seen as hot air and opinion polls show skepticism on the rise, fueling conservative opposition to a climate change bill that is a priority for President Barack Obama and making some Democrats vulnerable in the November 2010 congressional elections.

At U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen that begin next week, America will pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, which most scientists say are the main agents of climate change, by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

In global scientific circles, that is seen as vital as America accounts for around a fifth of global emissions. But for some conservative U.S. activists it all seems sinister.

"We're not interested in one-world government, which seems to be the direction of this summit," said Dale Robertson, the founder of the Tea Party organization which has held rallies across the country to protest Obama's agenda.

A constant theme on conservative and Christian talk-radio stations, which reach tens of millions of Americans, is the notion that the global warming scare is a "hoax" aimed at crippling the U.S. economy and way of life.

This all strikes a chord in these tough economic times and opinion polls show Americans cooling to the issue.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll in November found that 72 percent of Americans surveyed believed global warming was happening, down from 80 percent last year.

But even among Americans who accept that temperatures are climbing there is reluctance to pin the blame on humans.

A Pew poll in October found 57 percent of Americans felt there was evidence that the earth was warming, down from 71 percent in April 2008. But only 36 percent attributed this to human activities, compared with 47 percent last year.

TOUGH SELL, ELECTORAL RISKS

This makes the task of selling legislation to the U.S. public to cap emissions more difficult.

Getting legislation to this effect next year in the U.S. Senate is high on Obama's agenda. The House of Representatives has narrowly passed its own version and Republicans see opportunities here in next year's congressional contests when the Democrats will be fighting to maintain their majorities.

In the House of Representatives, Republican strategists have said that Harry Teague of New Mexico and Betsy Markey of Colorado are among the many Democrats seen vulnerable on this issue in 2010.

In the 100-seat Senate, some Democrats who are up for reelection next year will be in a bind on the issue, much as some are now with the healthcare debate.

"If the Senate does vote on climate change at some point next year, certainly Sens. Barbara Boxer (California), Michael Bennet in Colorado, Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas, Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Harry Reid in Nevada could all be vulnerable, depending, of course, on how they vote," said Jennifer Duffy of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent, said on Thursday negotiators in the Senate are nowhere close to writing details of a compromise climate change bill and that at least two key Senate committees, Finance and Agriculture, have not yet worked on their portions of a bill. Until then, a compromise bill will not be drafted, he said.

Analysts say growing public skepticism on the issue is explained in part by the recession and job losses.

"Up until a couple of years ago when people felt relatively wealthy and secure, they were willing to consider climate change as a problem we should address. But now that they feel more poor and vulnerable they are skeptical," said Cal Jillson, a professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

There are other uniquely American cultural traits that drive views on the issue, such as an enduring love affair with big vehicles which has been dented though hardly crushed by last year's record-high gas prices.

One in four U.S. adults is also an evangelical Christian and, while secular Europeans may find this odd, many really do believe that biblical prophecy foretells the planet's end.

"If you are an evangelical Christian in the American vein then you believe it is our responsibility to look after the planet but it will be ultimately destroyed no matter what we do," said Bart Barber, a Southern Baptist Convention preacher in the small north Texas town of Farmersville.