Americans have become much more skeptical of global warming prognoses over the past year, according to a study by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released October 23. The percentage of Americans who believe there's solid evidence that the Earth is warming has plummeted from 77 percent to 57 percent since April 2008, the study revealed. And those who believe that global warming is a very serious problem fell during the same period from 44 percent to 35 percent.

The Pew study also noted that the increased skepticism crossed party lines (though Republicans remain the most skepical) and geographical location. The Earth has not warmed over the past 10 years, and some have reported slight global cooling over the same period.

Yet President Obama was on the stump at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology October 23, retailing the old line about the undeniable inevitability of global warming:

So we are seeing a convergence. The naysayers, the folks who would pretend that this is not an issue, they are being marginalized. But I think it's important to understand that the closer we get, the harder the opposition will fight and the more we'll hear from those whose interest or ideology run counter to the much needed action that we're engaged in. There are those who will suggest that moving toward clean energy will destroy our economy — when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of new jobs. There are going to be those who cynically claim — make cynical claims that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence when it comes to climate change, claims whose only purpose is to defeat or delay the change that we know is necessary.

Perhaps most importantly for leftists seeking dramatic government-mandated behavioral changes for Americans, many Americans who once viewed global warming as a serious problem no longer do so. Only 35 percent of Americans (down from 44 percent in April 2008) believe global warming is a “very serious” problem. Moreover, the data from the Pew study says that only 36 percent of Americans say global warming is being caused by human activity, while the rest do not believe there is solid evidence that global warming is occurring, attribute global warming to natural causes, or are unsure.

Marginalized? Obama is clearly out of touch, unless he was talking about himself.

Statists should be troubled that many of those who accept global warming as fact don't regard it in terms of an end-of-times apocalypse, but free-market adherants should be encouraged. Few changes in climate are all bad; most contain measures of good and bad. The leftist and alarmist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claimed in its 2007 report that the average global temperature had gone up nearly three-quarters of a degree in the last century. But that report also noted, “Average arctic temperatures increased at almost twice the global average rate in the past 100 years.” More land in the north has become livable to humans, and arable, in the past century. What's so bad about that? It means more liveable land for people. It also means less habitat for polar bears, though the polar bear population has increased in recent years.

That same IPCC report said regarding global sea levels: “The total 20th-century rise is estimated to be 0.17 [0.12 to 0.22] m,” which is about half a foot. Even if this prediction turns out to be true, the fact remains that the sea level has been rising for at least 7,000 years without causing great and uncurable calamities. Any fan of the Discovery Channel knows that the English Channel was a land bridge for Mammoths during the last ice age. And humanity has not only failed to call that global climate change of rising seas “catastrophic” (as environmental leftists invariably call it), we have thrived in that 7,000-year process.

Even if the Earth were to warm significantly, humanity would both survive and thrive. After all, the Earth was both warmer and cooler in the past, and when it was warmer more land was habitable and arable — a boon for civilization.

Massive government intervention, however, has inevitably become catastrophic for humanity throughout history. Big government can quickly turn any green space into a barren blight. As Thomas Jefferson said, “If we were directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we would soon want for bread.”

Related article:

"Global Warming Skepticism"

"Whatever Happened to Global Warming?"

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lies, Lowly rated comment [Show]

JAMES RAIDER said:

BUYING OBAMA'S SUPPORT On December 10, Obama will receive his award in Oslo, just in time to energize the “Copenhagen” agenda. Whether or not he shows up at the UN meeting, the ideological intensions and expectations have been air freighted in the form a Nobel Prize. http://pacificgatepost.com/2009/10/obama-nobel-is-not-about-peace.html ---

October 25, 2009 | url

Flu-Bird said:

Con aryists al gore Al Gore is the biggist liar and conartists around like the old snake oil salemen selling a so called miricle cure that turns out be poison and dangerous

October 25, 2009

rm said:

... The problem is less in the air and more in the ground. Large amounts of the fresh underground water in the usa and in most industrial countries is contaminated - it occurred heavily during the beginning of the industrial era and solidly up into the 60's and continues on today - no fresh water - no life as we know it. We need real reform and responsibility from with the system both corporate and city communities (they both pollute). We need less of this hyperbole and dooms day talk to get anywhere with the long term issues

October 25, 2009

New pole shows over half of America think man contributes to climate change, Lowly rated comment [Show]

Rimu is correct, Lowly rated comment [Show]

Bonnie said:

Do the math Earl_E said "New pole shows over half of America think man contributes to climate change." Earl_E needs to read more carefully. The poll reveals that 57% believe in some kind of global warming. Of that 57%, only 36% believe in anthropogenic (man caused) climate change. Do the math. 36% of 57% is less than 21%. So Earl_E should be saying "New poll shows only 1/5 of Americans think man contributes to climate change."

October 25, 2009

Eve said:

Al Gore Even though I do not like what Al Gore has done, I have to admit he knows his audience. He knew the American public were uneducated enough that they would buy his snake oil. They did. How anyone could believe this is beyond me, knowing that it was warmer in the past. In the US the warmest year was 1934. But still people believe this. C02 in the atmosphere was higher in the 40's and still people believe this. Is this a reflection of the education system?

October 25, 2009

Thomas Paine said:

Chemtrails You should have shown Chemtrails in your picture above. As the Gov wants us to be all concerned about Global Warming, they continue to block out the sun every other day with their chemtrails operations.

October 26, 2009

Flu-Bird said:

HARPP Have you ever wondred also about the thing in NEW MEXICO called HARPP along with the chemtrails what its doing to our weather? and how its effecting us as well?

October 26, 2009

Florida Warren said:

What is it with the "chemtrails" already? Sheesh! Those believing in "chemtrails," black helicopters, and the Easter Bunny should read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrails Please don't make our website look ridiculous by spouting this nonsense!

October 26, 2009

josh meadows said:

New American hey whts up

October 26, 2009 | url

clark said:

... Often hundreds of flights go overhead for days on end, row after row, as if applying something, or weeks go by without a single one. How does someone explain these patterns? The Wiki entry fails to explain this pattern. On a recent sixty mile trip I saw row after purposely evenly spaced row of what looked like a spray, from horizon to horizon, trailing out the back of jets across the sky at a very low level for the entire distance turning a blue sky into solid white. I've noticed them at every altitude in every season, in the middle of a week of sunshine or all week long... it does appear they are applying something in the sky above us, most often at the cumulus cloud level. Nothing paranoid about it, its a simple observation anyone can make if they bothered to look up at the sky now and again.

October 28, 2009

P.M.Lawrence said:

Catastrophes "Even if this prediction turns out to be true, the fact remains that the sea level has been rising for at least 7,000 years without causing great and uncurable calamities". Oh? Whole towns have been destroyed along the North Sea and much land lost, e.g. at Dunwich, sometimes in catastrophes with great loss of life as at Rungholt (see Grote Mandrenke and Burchardi flood).

October 28, 2009 | url

S. Scott said:

... HARPP is in Alaska, a long way from New Mexico. Their web site is http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/haarp/index.html. It is much better to find facts before posting rather than believing in nonsense.

October 28, 2009

ET said:

Ever wonder how people believed in witches? Anytime you have something that is not fully understood, the power brokers jump in. Fear is the way to power. Control the witch trials, and you gain power. Convince people the plague or aids was sent from an invisible man in the sky (that talks only to you) and you gain power. Convince people that co2 is heating up the planet, and you gain power - if you can't be president, well at least you can make millions peddling fear. And face it, money is really more important than political office anyway. Look at obama - see the strings? That comes from those that own this country. One day people will wonder aloud "How did all those stupid humans believe that exhaling co2 was destroying the planet". They will laugh as we laugh at the witchcraft trials.

October 28, 2009

clark said:

... A better picture for this article could have been of a commercial airline pilot pointing out chemtrails with the caption saying the pilot says atmospheric conditions are not right for this to be anything other than chemtrails. http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=htp://www.newsmax.de/pilotenbeobachtung-zur-erzeugung-von-chemtrails-durch-2-globemaster-c17frachtmaschinen-in-6000-m-hoehe-ueber-deutschland-news98879.html&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0= The governments of Russia and China are known to shoot chemicals into the air to affect the weather, why wouldn't other governments do so as well? It appears that any climate change and freak weather like extreme flooding taking place is intentional via chemtrails. But, too many people are in denial that their government would do such a thing - truth deniers.

October 28, 2009

Thomas Paine said:

I asked a local news reporter about Chemtrails When you observe these and look through a binoculars to see the strange planes, you know something is wrong. I took numerous digital pictures and emailed them to a news reported asking about them. The reporter put my pictures on the morning show and said they were contrails. I then sent another email asking if the reporter saw them cover the entire sky. She said yes, and would not go any further in the discussion. They don't want to touch the subject.

October 28, 2009

Florida Warren said:

Will you people stop with the D*** chemtrails already? Quote: "A better picture for this article could have been of a commercial airline pilot pointing out chemtrails with the caption saying the pilot says atmospheric conditions are not right for this to be anything other than chemtrails." This cannot be done because so-called "chemtrails" do not exist, plain and simple. What you are seeing are properly called VAPOR trails! I always thought only jet aircraft produced them, but my father-in-law saw them in the sky over England (where he was stationed with the Navy during WWII) and he said they were produced by prop aircraft as well. They are just water vapor released into the atmosphere after aviation fuel has been burned, nothing more and nothing mysterious or sinister. Next we'll be hearing that old-fashioned skywriter planes writing advertising in the sky were part of some conspiracy, too.

October 28, 2009