This just makes me so mad, but not for the reasons you might expect. A recent AP-GfK poll (full disclosure, I’m basis this on news reports of the poll, because I have been unable to access the actual poll) shows that more and more people do think the Earth is warming. Yay… sigh…
But what really makes me mad is that, in the US,
The biggest change in the polling is among people who trust scientists only a little or not at all. About 1 in 3 of the people surveyed fell into that category. Washington Post
Seriously? In this day and age, a full 1/3 of the population of the US distrusts scientists. Then I would say to those people, give up your cell phones, give up your computer, your car, your fridge, your AC, your antibiotics, your ibuprofen, and all the other benefits of living in the technological society.
Until they do that, then they are the biggest hypocrites on the planet.
I’m glad that people are beginning to see global warming as a problem (80% now), but how many are willing to give up their big pickups and SUVs to help?
I’m also glad that people are saying that the government should do something (57% of the people). Unfortunately, some of that 57% still voted for Romney and the GOP whose response to global warming is complete and utter denial (sponsored by their corporate masters).
So, some progress is being made, but we have a lot further to go. Just to get people to accept the basic science that they use every single day of their lives is an uphill battle, which is insane.
UPDATE (12-17-12)
Here’s the results PDF: http://ap-gfkpoll.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/AP-GfK-Poll-November-2012-Final-Topline_CLIMATE-CHANGE.pdf
Page 3 shows the ‘trust scientists’ question and unlike what had been implied previously, this was only in regards to scientists’ opinions on climate change.
Almost 50% of the respondents claimed to be Democrat, but only about 20% claimed to be liberal with another 30% claiming to be moderate. Which pretty much implies that all of the Republican respondents claimed to be ‘conservative’.
A final interesting point was that the second highest religion category was “Don’t belong to religious denomination”. Since Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Mormon, Jewish, and Other Religion were specified, the “Don’t belong” is probably a fairly large amount of atheists. I have to wonder how much this poll (just over a 1,000 respondents) accurately reflects the actual percentages of the US. The only group that was higher than the “Don’ts” was Protestants.
