Salon.com > climate skeptics

Poll: Concern about global warming is growing

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:01:00 +0000

A new Gallup poll finds that more Americans are growing concerned about global warming, with 58 percent saying they "personally worry" about the effects of global warming at least a fair amount.

This is up from 51 percent in 2011.

From the poll:

Public concern about global warming has waxed and waned over the past two decades, ranging between 50% and 72%. The average percentage over time for "worrying a great deal/fair amount" comes in at just under 60%, similar to the March 7-10 reading from Gallup's 2013 Environment poll.

But the poll also finds that 15 percent believe that the effects of global warming will never happen, while 41 percent believe new reports about the subject are exaggerated.

Limbaugh rewards child climate skeptic with an iPad

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:20:00 +0000

On his show Thursday, Rush Limbaugh hosted a climate expert to explain how global warming is "a hoax." Sorry, did we say climate expert? We meant 13-year-old kid from Indiana. The young man called into Limbaugh's show and said he had done his own research at the local library for a school project and concluded that it was obvious that man-made climate change is bogus.

“It was really easy for me to find this evidence, really easy,” said young Alex. “I believe the reason that the liberals do not have the evidence [that it's a hoax] is because they do not want the evidence. They don't want to hear that it's wrong.”

Alex said he found all the information at the library, because he didn't have a computer. Limbaugh was so impressed that he told Alex he wanted to send him an iPad, assuming his parents were OK with it, in order to help him with future research.

Circling back today, Limbaugh explained that "exactly as the news media is a branch of the Democrat Party, so too is much of science today." "The global warming scientists are just Democrats, folks. They're all part of an agenda," he continued, "The Democrats have literally politicized everything they can use to expand government, which is their primary objective."

Statehouses introduce ALEC climate skeptic school bill

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:39:00 +0000

Arizona, Oklahoma and Colorado this year joined the dubious list of states to have this year introduced a bill that would mandate the teaching of climate change skepticism in public school systems, according to an investigation by DeSmogBlog's Steve Horn. Horn reported that the Environmental Literacy Improvement Act, a model bill written by the American Legislative Exchange Council with libertarian, climate-skeptic think tank the Heartland Institute, is already gaining ground in statehouses around the country.

Horn notes:

How will the House Science Committee address climate change?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:52:00 +0000

In his inaugural address, President Obama surprised the left by pledging to "respond to the threat of climate change" during his second term, "knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations." But one major hurdle will be Republicans in the House of Representatives, who helped scuttle climate change legislation in 2010, and who will likely force the president to use his executive powers to implement any kind of new regulations.

The House Science Committee is representative of one aspect of this dilemma, and a planned hearing to discuss factors that contribute to climate change could showcase just how many Republicans on the committee are decidedly anti-science. The hearing is still taking shape but will take place sometime in the coming weeks, according to a committee aide.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the committee's chairman, said in a statement that he hopes the hearing will "focus on the facts rather than on a partisan agenda":

GOP’s new House Science farce

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, will likely be the new Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, despite his rather skeptical take on the science behind man-made climate change.

From the Huffington Post:

On Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced that the Republican Steering Committee had recommended Smith as the new chairman. The full House GOP caucus will vote on all chairmanships Wednesday and is expected to ratify the steering panel's choices.

Smith once accused ABC, NBC and CBS of coverage that was “largely slanted in favor of global warming alarmists.”

“The networks have shown a steady pattern of bias on climate change,” Smith wrote in a statement in 2009. “During a six-month period, four out of five network news reports failed to acknowledge any dissenting opinions about global warming, according to a Business and Media Institute study.”

A Republican’s rare chance to be a real leader

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:00:00 +0000

In light of horrific wildfires, a historic drought and now the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy, the political understatement of the year has to be President Obama's recent comment to MTV. Asked about climate change's absence from all presidential debates for the first time in a generation, he said, "I am surprised it didn't come up."

Instead of "surprised" he should have said "appalled" -- because that's what he and most Americans should be. As Scientific American reports, while no one weather event can be blamed on climate change, science now definitively "link(s) climate change directly to intense storms and other extreme weather events."

Of course, the reason the issue hasn't "come up" in a presidential campaign roiled by climate-related disasters is because many voters refuse to acknowledge that human-intensified climate change is real. Indeed, you can show people the data; you can show them photos of coastal devastation; you can even show them the ultraconservative insurance industry admitting "the footprints of climate change are around us" -- and nonetheless, too many will still insist it is all just a liberal fantasy manufactured by Al Gore. That's because, in a country where self-image is defined by party allegiance, the GOP's fealty to fossil fuel companies and its corresponding rejection of climate science means many Republicans categorically ignore environmental truths.

Sandy: It’s a coincidence!

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Where have all the climate skeptics gone? Sandy's devastation provoked renewed attention to the connections between climate change and extreme weather, but so far, Republican politicians have been keeping a low profile on the topic.

But you never have to look too far to find the skeptic point of view. Case in point: ClimateDepot, my favorite one-stop shop for attacks on climate scientists and the mainstream academic consensus that man-made global warming is substantially affecting our weather. ClimateDepot is run by Marc Morano, who served as the communications director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works back when Republicans controlled the Senate, and whose mission in life has long been to promote the view of his former boss, Sen. Jim Inhofe, that “global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” Mitt Romney might be keeping his mouth shut on climate change, but you can bet your last Exxon-Mobil funding dollar that ClimateDepot will never be silenced.