Our last blog at replyforall covered the worldwide action around climate change, led by 350.org. With thousands of actions in over 180 countries, it’s hard to deny that we’re serious about the issue.
Climate Change Map
Are we in the minority? The same weekend that hundreds of thousands of people came out to take a stand for earth, an article was published in the New York Times saying that Americans, at least, are cooling on the issue of global warming.
The research to suggest this comes from the Pew Research Center, which reports that the number of Americans who believe that global warming is a big issue has dropped sharply. In April of last year, 44% said that global warming was a very serious problem; this year, only 35% of people interviewed did. Of course, what is categorized as “serious” can be very relative–but facts are facts, right? The research shows that only 36% of Americans believe that human activity causes rising temperatures, down from 47% last year.
Has the evidence been shoved aside, or has new evidence clouded our understanding of the issue of climate change? The good news is, according to Pew, a majority of Americans still believe that the United States should join other countries to set standards around global climate change.
Yet, the U.N. has lowered its expectations of the climate change summit in Copenhagen, stating that a legally binding deal between developed nations will take longer than they expected. And the legislation for cap and trade, or any substantive climate policy, has been buried in Congress.
Maybe truthdig.com is right– Americans won’t believe in global warming until they’re actually melting. So thank you to our users for staying aware and spreading that awareness to your friends with the fight global warming email signature. replyforall is so happy that your emails are driving donations to ClimateCounts.org and the Clean Energy Coalition– two organizations who aren’t cooling off when it comes to global climate change and the need to act now.
What do you think about changing perceptions? We’d love to hear what you have to say, comment below!
Fight the Good Fight,
Johanna Hudgens
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By using this email signature, Johanna and ClimateCounts.org prevented 1,030 kg of CO2 from entering our skies.
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Related articles by check out!
- Survey Says: Americans Not Worried About Global Warming (blogs.wsj.com)
- If Cap-and-Trade is So Terrible, What’s the Alternative? (blogs.wsj.com)
- UN Signals Delay in Climate Change Treaty (usnews.com)
- Poor nations accuse rich over climate (guardian.co.uk)
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Tags: 350.org, CEC, climate change, Climate Change Map, climatecounts.org, Copenhagen, Emissions trading, Environment, global warming, Global Warming Map, Johanna Hudgens, Pew Research Center, Replyforall, United States
The evidence has been shoved aside. The continued warmth of the world is amazing. We are collectively like that frog in “The Inconvenient Truth”, we are just getting used to the warmer world. Yes, if we do not personally feel the impact of global warming, by melting it is not that real. If you lived in the west this summer you did have that melting feel. If you spend time hiking among glaciated mountains you would see that melting. The task remains to convince one person at a time, the best evidence is the kind they see and feel.
http://www.nichols.edu/departments/Glacier/global%20glacier%20mass%20balance.htm
http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/mass-balance-of-the-easton-glacier-2009/
http://glacierchange.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/milk-lake-glacier-loss/
Even letting the debate continue, when our species may hang in the balance, says something about us. I argue that there is a certain presumptuousness surrounding our approach to how we are addressing global warming that goes well beyond simply having a short-term perspective. What if the cockroach has a more sustainable position? I recommend the following post: http://euandus3.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/climatic-presumption-what-is-the-forecast/
I do agree that global warming has seemed to become less of a hot topic recently, but I’m left wondering if that is a trend unique to America, or one we would see worldwide?
It is quite unfortunately that in America, at least, climate change issues have become much more a matter of ideology than a matter of science and evidence. Given this reality, is it especially unfortunate that the United States is such a key player when it comes to climate treaties, regulations, or international agreements. Maybe everyone is slowly becoming more and more disillusioned and apathetic, as it seems that little to nothing is being done on a large scale to attempt to prevent climate disaster.
I don’t think the topic has cooled off, but I do think that Americans have become frustrated with the inability of their leaders to put forth a solution that will be effective. Waxman-Markey was a step forward but there are so many skewed incentives, potential legal issues (regarding WTO violations, etc), and negative externalities (possible carbon leakage?) that could make W-M more detrimental than beneficial to society on an international level…
Even if most people do believe that climate change is a threat, they won’t be passionate about the issue unless they find a solution that they can wholeheartedly support.
I think the climate change as a “serious” topic has been green washed and with a sense of hopelessness in that things will never change. In my experience with people in the United States is seems like many want to ignore global warming as problem or don’t care that it is an issue that effects all life on this planet. I think our culture needs more people that carry a message of hope and creativity that inspires others to want to become stewards of the earth. Just the simple acts of composting have made friends open to talking to me about environmental issues and the effects of global warming. The scale at which humans are responsible or not responsible for global warming is irrelevant. The rate at which the earth is heating up effects the life that is currently on the planet. It is a serious issue that has widespread impacts. These impacts are arguably positive and/or negative depending upon which angle you choose argue from or they are simply what is so. Ironically, we are currently in a cold stage in relation to the earths history according to geological history.
First it’s trendy, then it’s not… looks like Americans still have short attention spans. A result of too much T.V., maybe?
Of course, climate change is a social issue as much as it is an environmental issue. Think something like the weather affects everybody equally? No way. As with so many other things, those who can pay will be able to more easily avoid the crisis, while those who are already marginalized by our society will only become further marginalized by environmental issues (take the privilege of mobility, for example, and look no further than Hurricane Katrina).
I think a lot of this “cooling down” of interest you mention stems from our inability to see our own ecological footprints.
Plus, Al Gore was SO 2007.
A thought: The term “global warming” is not very accurate; a more appropriate one is “global climate change.” With some parts of the country experiencing cooler than normal temperatures (such as where I am in Arkansas) this past summer, “global warming” doesn’t seem to be a pressing issue. Thus, it may be hard for people that only hear the term as a catch-phrase in the news to pay attention. Obviously this doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening and that we shouldn’t be worried, but with the duration of the economic recession it maybe isn’t surprising that it is less of a priority on a personal level for many people.
I don’t think the topic of global warming has cooled off, but the factions responding to it have changed somewhat. The issue has grown from one more associated with liberal grass-root groups to something that has become more corporate and political. Companies are now doing more to promote their “green-ness” and many countries are coming together try to deal with climate change –just recently German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about the importance of having a strong worldwide coalition to combat warming.
The fact that climate change has attracted the attention of these corporate and political forces is positive–they have the power to actually have an impact on climate change. This does not mean that we as individuals can just sit back–we need to keep this issue near the forefront of politicians minds to emphasize its importance to the future of our world, and do our own small part to fight climate change.
Maybe the reason it is less of an interest to the American public is that people’s consciences became exhausted. It is quite a demanding job to be a conscientious citizen of the world, and I have endless respect for those who can keep their thoughtfulness thriving at all times. Unfortunately, I don’t think the average person can keep an energized and proactive attitude toward such a big issue for very long. I agree that if it were broken down, ideally by something as far-reaching as the government, into a manageable problem with reasonable solutions, it would hold more people’s conscientious attentions. But life is never so simple, and we’re talking about a countless number of lives here. As Johanna said, keep fighting the good fight, proactive people; exercise your conscientiousness at least 42 times a day!!!!!!!!!!!
Um, yeah. Disappointing. If one were into argumentation, a case could be made for the fact (perceived or real, I’m not sure) that the climate change discourse gets lumped together with a post-nationalist “one world” political agenda typically associated with the traditional left. Climate change is usually thought of as something that needs to be mandated on a global scale, by the UN or some other influential body, and that would then filter down to the various nations. From a sociopolitical isolationist’s perspective, this could seem to be a threat to national sovereignty and even individual rights. A valid point – in order for global legislation to work, it would need a global executive body with the power necessary to enforce and regulate. That kind of power is, well, scary.
In my [sortof] humble opinion, the problem is that the politics of climate change drown out the pragmatic discussions that address environmental degradation within our own borders, cities, and communities. Climate change needs to be re-framed into the language of civil society, much in the way that the politics of human rights are. Human rights, more and more a global phenomenon, is still a very potent area in national politics – most of the major social debates revolve around some conception of “rights”, whether its the right to marry, the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, the right to a secular education, the right to vote, the right to not be enslaved… Although all of these apply to people everywhere, they are visceral and personal enough on a community level to motivate people to take action on them.
In the same vein, climate change needs to be not about the extreme top-down enforcement, but about the very personal struggle for the right to live in a healthy world. Where appropriate, it could even take the “rights of nature” stance, as was done in Ecuador. In either case, the point is that instead of expecting the global political community (which, by the way, is grossly out-matched by global commercial interests like the WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc.) to take a stand, we must emphatically demand that our rights and especially the rights of those most affected by climate change – humans and non-humans alike – are acknowledged, respected, and protected. Because the only thing that has the power to single-handedly dictate the global climate is physics and sunlight. There is no single human entity that has created the horrendous environmental disease of the present – it has been and is being done by billions of individuals and their respective social bodies. The only way to change that is to change billions of minds, starting with just one and then radiating outward until it becomes a growing, changing web of inter-collaborative yet independent wholes. In other words, a movement.
People aren’t concerned with Global Warming because Global Warming is nothing more than a scare tactic dreamed up by the political yahoos trying to make some money by deceiving the uneducated, naive, leftest wackjobs that make up the Democratic party. This is proven merely by looking at the figurehead of the Global Warming propaganda machine – Al Gore, who absolutely profits from his scam through his company Generation Investment Management (GIM) which deals in “carbon offsets.” Another fact disproving global warming is that the global temperature went DOWN by 1.3 degrees last year which has caused even the most devote global warming proponents to re-bran the scam to “climate change.”
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