Extreme Weather Wakes US Up To Climate Change
US public opinion is rapidly waking up to the threat posed by global warming, despite the best efforts of the Bush Administration and much of industry to deny the problem.
There has been a double-digit increase in the proportion of Americans who say environmental problems are a major global threat - from 23 per cent to 37 per cent, according to a comprehensive survey published this week by the Pew Centre in Washington.
The environment is increasingly in the news in the US, thanks to violent and unusual weather patterns - mainly floods and severe drought - combined with the rising cost of petrol. The past few days have seen dramatic rainfall across the southern states. More than a foot of rain fell across central Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, with more storms predicted.
Hardly a day passes without a report being issued pointing to new environmental threats. A study released yesterday revealed how much damage Alaska, which is currently experiencing forest fires, would suffer from higher temperatures, melting permafrost, reduced polar ice and increased flooding.
The cost of repairing Alaska’s roads, runways and railroads which are being swept away as the permafrost melts is due to leap from $6.1bn (£3bn) at present to $40bn, according to the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska.
Despite the growing evidence of the economic cost of climate change on the US, opinion remains polarised. Peter Larsen, the author of the Alaska report, pointed out that while “Alaska is warming more quickly than any other place on the planet right now,” his concerns were usually greeted with scepticism.
“On more than one occasion I had people laugh at me on the phone,” he said, when he had asked colleagues elsewhere in the US how much climate change is affecting infrastructure.
The Pew survey bears out the fact that concern about the environment is still sharply lower in the US than in any other advanced industrial country, with the exception of the UK. In every other Western European country large majorities view global warming as a serious problem, ranging from 57 per cent in Italy to 70 per cent in Spain.
The survey of some 10,000 people worldwide by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that public opinion in Great Britain mirrors the US view. In the UK, less than half (45 per cent) say it is very serious while another 37 per cent rate it as a somewhat serious concern.
The survey found that the Chinese are far more likely than Americans to cite environmental problems as a major global danger (70 per cent against 37 per cent).
Worldwide, most people in the surveyed countries agree that the environment is in trouble and most blame the US and, to a much more limited degree, China.
President George Bush refused to sign up to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and at this month’s G8 summit he was the driving force behind the omission of a specific target for reducing carbon emissions in the final climate-change communique. The EU, Canada and Japan had been pushing for a 50 per cent cut in global emissions by 2050.
In 34 of the 37 countries surveyed by Pew, the United States is named by a majority as the country that is “hurting the world’s environment the most.”
This finger-pointing at the US spills over into a more general Americanism. Majorities in many countries are also deeply opposed to US foreign policy and express distaste for American-style democracy, the survey found. Favourable views of the US tend only to be found in the “New Europe”, some parts of Africa and the Far East.
© 2007 The Independent
The United States should be villified for its Iraqi Holocaust and recognized by the world that it has no intention on doing anything to mitigate climate change. The US Empire must be recognized as the greatest threat to human wellbeing. It must be fought everywhere by everybody. That is the planetary “progressive” position.
Good morning America!
It is nice to see that we are all starting to wake up to the fact that global warming/climate change is a problem.
The first step in solving a problem is realizing that there is a problem.
Don’t worry, nature will take care of this.
Either GW will close a feed-back loop to kill the organisms responsible for the CO2 emissions, or it will not. If it does not (an admittedly unlikely scenario), there is no problem.
Even if it does, some populations will take the brunt of it, while others get off relatively lightly. If you are one of the lucky, there is no problem.
If you are one of the unlucky, past experience indicates that the lucky will find some rationalization to allow them not to worry about your fate, in which case, there is still no problem.
I suppose it is possible in an abstract way, that people will see the danger of our way of life in time to actually prevent the consequences, but I find this to be the least plausible scenario of all. For this to happen, three conditions must occur simultaneously:
1) Consequences are immediate and terrifying.
2) There is a connection between 1) above, and our way of life that even the dullest mind cannot deny.
3) This occurs in a timely fashion, while action is still useful.
The climate is a massive system, with large time lags. By the time 1) and 2) are true, 3) will almost certainly be false.
Regardless of whether the changing climate is due to humans or to nature, it is changing and rapidly. The most important thing is that we do change what we can that IS aggravating the circumstances (CO2 emissions etc.).
I myself believe that human activity is the flashpoint and centre of the changes. It is not that difficult to subtly change our lifestyle in increments. I drive far less now than previously, use less energy to heat my home and do everything else within my ability to economize my energy footprint.
Because I work in a field that is not indoors all year round, I tend to notice very much the changing weather patterns and perceive that our climate on the West Coast is indeed, changing from year to year in a more dramatic way. It is far beyond mere El Nino years and non El Nino years.
The climatists are not trying to fear monger. They are trying to educate. Most Canadians understand that and are attempting to force our own neo-con minority government to commit to proper standards though they are constantly declaring that it is not economically feasible. It is not only economically feasible, it can be economically enriching for the companies and corporations that come up with green technologies without going nuclear.
When will the corpos wake up?
GLOBAL WARMING DIVERSION. June 2, 2007
After six years of stonewalling & deception to impede global warming mitigation, Bush now throws a bone to appease the world community with comparable meaningless rhetoric. The dangerous manipulation of essential scientific data used by his team to conceal and derail corrective measures for this threat and other vital environmental reforms has always been apparent–and the ambiguaty of his recent statements show that their motives have not changed.
Contrary to their assertions, measures to reduce greenhouse gases could only improve our economy by lessening our trade deficits, and improving our security by reducing our dependance on foreign oil. We could also regain some of our lost world respect that has resulted from our opposition Kyoto while arrogantly contributing disproportionally to carbon pollution.
Evidence linking carbon pollution to warming has been as close to certain as science can be for many years. Its causes, consequences, and mitigation requirements have been documented by many dedicated environmental organizations including The Union of Concerned Scientists.
Often overlooked is the fact that the same measures needed to mitigate global warming would be necessary even if it were not an issue. Conservation, alternative energy development, anti- pollution refinements, etc are essential for other vital environmental reforms such as air and water quality, reductions in toxic waste generation, land preservation, etc.
The environmental and social damage from our indifference to carbon pollution and related environmental measures can only worsen if we allow this reckless and unlearned president to continue this war on the environment.
San Rafael, CA
rhsettgast@hotmail.com
Robert Settgast: As usual, informed and important commentary.
I’ d like to add something anecdotal to this conversation. A few years ago when I lived in St Pete (Florida) I dated a man (I was very curious about this type of “animal”) who told me he was a Born Again Christian and had a degree in biology. He got the “degree” from Bob Jones University and due to his Biblical beliefs, somehow found a way to reconcile BIOLOGY (as he understood it) with the faith-based concepts of non-evolution. Wow!
Last night I accepted a dinner date (again, partly on the basis of curiosity, and also because I have to admit, these men have great manners, old fashioned respect for women, etc.) with an ENVIRONMENTAL engineer who is also a born again Christian. The topic of global warming came up (although I promised myself to try to avoid political topics at dinner) and I couldn’t believe that he had a DEGREE from UF and still thought it’s all a hoax! I reminded him that 99% percent of scientists in peer-review literature agree that the phenomena is human-caused, but he didn’t buy it! Here is why. These people listen to right wing radio, and the charlatans on those airwaves come up with these glib sounding bromides, all in the genre, of “You’re a good person, you are FREE to live the way you want to live, you do NOT have to change anything.” They do NOT understand that the blue collar stooge delivering this “message” is a mouthpiece to corporations that purposely muddy the waters and in my view hardly create reasonable doubt, but for some, unreasonable doubt is enough rationale to continue on as thus. One theory rightwing radio is now promulgating is that the SUN is heating up. I asked him what evidence there was for this so-called theory? I mean these people, and there are MILLIONS of them (they have their own universities now to certify their supposed areas of expertise) really do NOT believe in global warming, it is indeed TOO inconvenient a truth for them to countenance.
This story is a Brit commenting about public opinion in the U.S.
Screw public opinion. It may make for stories and political ebb and flow, but the physical data are what matter.
Stop publishing opinion. Stop trying to manipulate with blather. Publish the data and present it in a way that can lead to valid conclusions.