Slashdot Mirror
Record Number of Americans See Climate Change As a Current Threat (axios.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: More Americans are very worried about global warming and say the issue is personally important to them than ever before, according to a new poll released Tuesday. The polling may indicate that extreme weather events -- coupled with a series of grim scientific findings -- over the past year are starting to change peoples' minds about climate change, which could have significant implications for any significant climate legislation passing Congress. The key finding from the new survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication is that Americans increasingly view global warming as a present-day threat to them, rather than an issue that will affect future generations. Nearly half of Americans (46%) said they personally experienced the effects of global warming -- a 15-point spike since March 2015.
Or rather, the more often a lie is told, the more people believe it.
I remember back in the 80s when the warning came out with the predictions of what would happen.
We're living it.
I'm not interested in "Liberal" vs "Conservative" bickering or what is "fake" or not.
From everything I have seen, doing what I can to reduce human caused climate change means a better way of life for me. Less pollution. Less money being spent. Healthier lifestyle. A better way of life for my children and grandchildren. Less wars. Less migrations and the trouble that causes.
If we could just stop these bullshit wars that cause people to migrate. I cannot blame any Syrian who wants to leave. The same for every other country over-run with assholes who want to take over everything for whatever reason.
Are you a farmer that will have to find new sources of water as droughts affect your crops? If additional water is not enough, can you switch to alternative crops? Not a farmer, are you or someone you know will be affected if farming has to change because of climate change? That's just on crops.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
The right are so old that they'll die before or during a climate change problem would kill them: lack of food/water, weather being too hot/cold to handle by current buildings, power issues from the additional strain for compensating for erratic climate, species of important ecological impact on food production dying. These issues won't happen this year unless you live in a desert yet, but will slowly creep out from the deserts and into normal population centers and then shit will really hit the fan.
Why is it then predominantly only the left t
Nearly everywhere in the world, climate change is a non-partisan issue. Climate change denial is mostly relegated to small, and usually extreme, parties. The US is the great exception.
There are several reasons, but the root of the general anti-science position of the Republican party originates from peddling to fundamentalist Christian creationist voters. To be able to maintain the more brain-damaged forms of creationism, you need to reject a large part of modern science - and also a large part of the institutions of modern science. Once this "scepticism" has set in, it's easy to extend it to other aspects of science.
Stephan
Why is it then predominantly only the left that pushes the cataclysmic effects of climate change, while those on the right tend not to see it as a dire threat (if they acknowledge it exists)?
It's a matter of temperament with each group. At the risk of over-generalizing, leftists support progress, reform, internationalism, whereas rightists support order, tradition, and nationalism. More here.
Is it the those on the left are just so wise, and those on the right are dumb?
No and no. There are lots of dumb leftists and smart rightists. As I said, it's more an issue of temperament than intelligence.
Or is it that the left has been attaching climate change to all of their favorite other ideas, making it even less of an attractive/plausible issue to those on the right?
The left and the right have been known to agree on many things. Generally they just don't seem to do so on this one. I don't think the right is less inclined to deal with climate change because the left has the opposite view. Rather, they see the effort to deal with climate change as disruptive of a status quo they are comfortable with.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
I wish more Americans were involved in foreign politics, they would realize this is very true. Also it's why everyone complains social media sites are all left wing because they get traffic from all over the world. America's far left are centrists in the eyes of the world.
Which island nations are losing area, are ending up underwater?
Miami Beach, FL
60% of republicans want Medicare for all, 90% of democrats do too. Even a poll on Fox News bore this out. Yet somehow all the right talking heads on tv say communists are the only ones that want socialized healthcare. The real reason we don't have it, or a lot of the other issues we all agree on is America is a representative democracy that only seems to represent moneyed interests and not citizens.
The left and the right have been known to agree on many things. Generally they just don't seem to do so on this one.
Prior to about 1988, conservatives pretty much did agree that climate change was a problem, and the science was not at all controversial. For instance, it was well understood through the 60s-70s that CO2 was the greenhouse gas that made the surface of Venus so much hotter than Mercury, and conservatives weren't inclined to dispute it.
When it came to the point of deciding what to do, certain corporations used their lobbying arms to reset opinion amongst the conservatives, framing it along typical lines around controversy and the threat of socialism, in order to protect the profits of those corporations.
I don't think the right is less inclined to deal with climate change because the left has the opposite view. Rather, they see the effort to deal with climate change as disruptive of a status quo they are comfortable with.
And by not participating in the discussion about what to do about climate change conservatives have created the impression that they do not have a solution, so we instead need to look to the left to solve it. Which is ridiculous, like every problem, there is a spectrum of approaches we can take.
You can't negotiate with the physical reality of climate change, it's not a matter of opinion, You can, however, advocate for more 'right friendly' ways of resolving the issue, and if you truly believe that 'right friendly' solutions are the best and most efficient, the right should be confident in advocating for those solutions.
The right saying that climate change is a socialist conspiracy is saying that only socialism can solve a class of global problems, which is not only incorrect it also invalidates the right wing altogether.
I like how people discount the measurements and observations thousands of scientists take day in and day out as they apply their PhDs and livelihood to observe what is happening to the world. They have worked full time or more for decades on end to come to these conclusions.
You think these fucking scientists love being holed up in a shotty little observation pod in Antarctica away from their families the majority of the year? No they're doing it so that they can report to humanity their findings and give us warning and advisement if need be.
To ignore their warning on the basis of "you just feel they're wrong", or "it's political" is a display of self destructive and ignorant hubris.
Seriously you'd have to be deluded or have a mental illness to think you know better than the worldwide scientific community. The worst part is your ignorance will destroy the world for our grandchildren.