Sad news for all the Cult of Climastrology members, via a National Journal poll, which asked specific Democrat and Republican insiders what they thought
25+ years of spreading awareness…ok, whining… and this is the best they can do.
Amongst the Republican insiders asked, only 4% thought major, 66% minor, 30% no role.
There are many quotes from both sides, generally in a political manner (why else? This is a political issue, not a scientific issue), and the best comes from a Republican
“Voters don’t care.”
No, they really don’t. Climate change tends to be last or next to last in every issues poll. In yet another United Nations international poll, climate change is last overall, yet again. As Anthony Watts notes, the only places where “climate change” ranks higher are a places that have high HDI, human development index
Note that in these countries (medium to dark blue), people already have the things in place that come in lower than the climate change, so they tend to take them for granted. Countries that have a high HDI have reliable energy, Internet access, political freedoms, and social programs, so it is no wonder these sorts of things come in as lower concerns in medium to high HDI countries. These countries also tend to have a population that has people economically free enough to worry about things like climate change, whereas in some countries, you can’t get electricity or get on the Internet to read the latest doom and gloom being spewed by MSM outlets like the Guardian.
First World Problems.
You’ve won! Congratulations!
Governments will continue the largely symbolic half-measures until global warming starts impacting people directly – cars bursting into flames on CA freeways, more frequent and more dangerous tropical storms, flooding islands and coasts, heat waves, extinctions – and when other immediate problems are less pressing.
We humans did not evolve to appreciate a slow-motion existential threat. We smoke, overdrink, overeat, eschew exercise, have unsafe sex, all with little regard for our future health. We evolved to fear bears, intruders and starving, not heart attacks or diabetes. We are ill-equipped to balance risks – we keep loaded pistols even though statistically they are more likely to kill the owner than an evildoer. Many abandon vaccinations, preventing communicable diseases in their children (and others), because of a fear of autism.
So, at some time in the future, humans will have to cope with the results of man-made global warming. We should hope they “appreciate” the challenges we’re bequeathing them!
Jeffery you sound just like me now.. Man is a joke and for us to think we are somehow special is beyond the pale.
Mother Earth will kill us off and keep on ticking until the sun heats up so hot that it will cook the planet in about 1.7 billion years..