October 23rd, 2009
A Giant Step Back
The Copenhagen climate summit is less than two months away. Taking place in Denmark from December 7th through December 18th, the conference will be a site of intense negotiations over curbing carbon dioxide emissions world wide. This is important. This is very, very important. Most the of the world realizes the importance of fighting global warming.. except the United States. We on the other hand seem be going backwards on the issue.
While our new President and the Congress has taken action to combat heat-trapping emissions for the first time, and they’re working towards an international treaty to slow global warming, the public doesn’t seem to be interested in joining them. A poll of 1,500 adults was released by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, dealing with American viewpoints on environmental issues. Lets just say the results were shocking and very, very disheartening. It appears we have taken a GIANT step back on the environmental front. Just 57% of Americans think there is solid evidence that global warming is real. That’s 20 percentage points down from three years ago, when Pew started polling on this issue. TWENTY PERCENTAGE POINT.. that is astounding!
It doesn’t stop there, only about a third of Americans feel that human actions, pollution for cars and factories, are responsible for temperature increase. That number was at 47% only three years ago. I understand we are caught in a midst of an economic turmoil, however, can we afford to let environmental issues just sit there unattended? If you found out you had cancer that hasn’t metastasized yet, would you ignore because you were going through financial hardship? Global warming as a result of pollution is a cancer.. and it threatens the lives of millions worldwide. From continual soil erosion and desertification in Australia and Africa, increasing frequency of hurricanes, the melting of polar ice caps, and the rise of sea levels that threaten nations like the Maldives
The most disappointing fact about our nation’s views on environmental issues is that the opinions seem to break down by party lines. According to the Pew poll, three-quarter of Democrats believe that the evidence behind global warming, and nearly half believe that the problem is serious. However, 57 percent of Republicans believe that there is no solid evidence for global warming, a figure that has risen by 26 percentage points from 2007. In the academic world, with a few exceptions, majority of scientists agree that global warming is happening, and that the primary cause is the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
How do you feel about global warming?
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