Gallup Poll: Record-High 41% of Americans Now Say Global Warming is Exaggerated
March 12, 2009
I come to the floor today with breaking news in the man-made global warming debate: A new Gallup Poll has just been released. A "record-high 41% of Americans now say [global warming] is exaggerated!" This is the "highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting" in more than a decade, according to the March 11, 2009, Gallup survey.
You should never underestimate the intelligence of the American people. Sadly, that is exactly what the promoters of man-made climate fears have been consistently doing, and the American people have consistently rejected climate alarm. Despite world-wide media frenzy, Americans remain as skeptical of global warming fears as they were in 1989.
A previous Gallup Poll, released on Earth Day 2008, showed that the American public's concern about man-made global warming is unchanged from 1989. The number of Americans who "worry a great deal" about man-made global warming remains practically unchanged from 1989 (35% in 1989 vs. 37% in 2008). After one of the slickest and most expensive climate change fear campaigns in our nation's history, there is no change in global warming concern by Americans in the past two decades. This skepticism persists despite a Nobel Peace Prize jointly shared by former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations climate panel.
Skepticism persists despite an Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth. Skepticism persists despite a $300 million campaign by Gore to spread climate fears. Skepticism persists despite a daily drumbeat of scary scenarios promoted by the UN and the media of what could, might, or may happen a 20, 50, or 100 years from now. In fact, global warming skepticism appears to have grown stronger as the shrillness of the climate fear campaign has intensified. The latest Gallup Poll, released March 11, 2009, further reveals the American public's growing skepticism.
Gallup Poll: 'Record-High 41% of Americans now say global warming is exaggerated!' - 'Highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting' in more than a decade - March 11, 2009
Key Quotes from New Gallup Survey:
"A record-high 41% now say it is exaggerated. This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject. Not only does global warming rank last on the basis of the total percentage concerned either a great deal or a fair amount, but it is the only issue for which public concern dropped significantly in the past year."
"However, the solitary drop in concern this year about global warming, among the eight specific environmental issues Gallup tested, suggests that something unique may be happening with the issue."
"It is not clear whether the troubled economy has drawn attention away from the global warming message or whether other factors are at work."
"Importantly, Gallup's annual March update on the environment shows a drop in public concern about global warming across several different measures, suggesting that the global warming message may have lost some footing with Americans over the past year."
"Since 1997, Republicans have grown increasingly likely to believe media coverage of global warming is exaggerated, and that trend continues in the 2009 survey; however, this year marks a relatively sharp increase among independents as well."
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Inhofe Notes on Gallup Poll:
These dramatic polling results are not unexpected as prominent scientists from around the world continue to speak out publicly for the first time to dissent from the Al Gore, UN IPCC and media driven man-made climate fears. In addition, a steady stream of peer-reviewed studies, analyses, real world data and inconvenient developments have further refuted the claims of man-made global warming fear activists.
Americans are finally catching on in large numbers that the UN IPCC is a POLITICAL -- not scientific organization. Man-made global warming fears have proven simply unsustainable - to use a nice green term.
If new peer-reviewed studies are to be believed, today's high school kids watching Gore's movie will be nearing the senior citizen group AARP's membership age (50 years) by the time warming allegedly "resumes" in 30 years! See: Climate Fears RIP...for 30 years!? - Peer-Reviewed Study Finds Global Warming could stop 'for up to 30 years! Warming 'On Hold?...'Could go into hiding for decades' study finds - Discovery.com - March 2, 2009 -
Dr. John Brignell, a skeptical UK Emeritus Engineering Professor at the University of Southampton wrote in 2008:
Professor Brignell wrote: "The warmers are getting more and more like those traditional predictors of the end of the world who, when the event fails to happen on the due date, announce an error in their calculations and a new date."
Furthermore, I have always believed that the more global warming information people have, the less concerned they will become.
Confirming this unintended consequence is a study by the scientific journal Risk Analysis released in February 2008 which found that Gore and the media's attempts to scare the public "ironically may be having just the opposite effect."
The study found that the more informed respondents "show less concern for global warming."
The study found that "perhaps ironically, and certainly contrary to... the marketing of movies like Ice Age and An Inconvenient Truth, the effects of information on both concern for global warming and responsibility for it are exactly the opposite of what were expected. Directly, the more information a person has about global warming, the less responsible he or she feels for it; and indirectly, the more information a person has about global warming, the less concerned he or she is for it." (LINK)
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