13% of Americans don't know about Global Warming

[DBAHO]

THIRTEEN per cent of Americans have never heard of global warming even though their country is the world's top source of greenhouse gases, a 46-country survey has revealed.

 

The report, by ACNielsen of more than 25,000 Internet users, showed that 57 per cent of people around the world considered global warming a "very serious problem" and a further 34 per cent rated it a "serious problem".

 

"It has taken extreme and life-threatening weather patterns to finally drive the message home that global warming is happening and is here to stay unless a concerted, global effort is made to reverse it," ACNielsen Europe president Patrick Dodd said.

 

People in Latin America were most worried while US citizens were least concerned with just 42 per cent rating global warming "very serious".

 

The United States emits about a quarter of all greenhouse gases, the biggest emitter ahead of China, Russia and India.

 

Thirteen per cent of US citizens said they had never heard or read anything about global warming, the survey said.

 

Almost all climate scientists say that temperatures are creeping higher because of heat-trapping greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels.

 

The study also found that 91 per cent of people had heard about global warming and 50 per cent reckoned it was caused by human activities.

 

A UN report due on Friday is set to say it is at least 90 per cent probable that human activities are the main cause of warming in the past 50 years.

 

People in China and Brazil were most convinced of the link to human activities and Americans least convinced.

 

The survey said that people living in regions vulnerable to natural disasters seemed most concerned - ranging from Latin Americans worried by damage to coffee or banana crops to people in the Czech Republic whose country was hit by 2002 floods.

 

In Latin America, 96 per cent of respondents said they had heard of global warming and 75 per cent rated it "very serious".

 

Most industrial nations have signed up for the UN's Kyoto Protocol, which imposed caps on emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from factories, power plants and vehicles.

 

President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of Kyoto in 2001, but said last week that climate change was a "serious challenge".

[Balta1701]

I'm quite impressed that it's that low.

[DBAHO]

I'm quite impressed that it's that low.

I don't think that's a good thing.

 

Down here we're really feeling the effects of it.

 

Thanks to the El Nino Weather Pattern, we've suffered drought after drought after drought. And that means water shortages. Certain states down here are going to start to use recycable drinking water, because well we're not getting enough rain to put in the dams.

 

And if greenhouse gas emissions stay like they are for the next decade, it's only going to get that much worse.

 

And you're going to have situations where certain places whether they're islands, or close to the equator become unliveable basically.

[Balta1701]

I don't think that's a good thing.

You don't have much experience with this country do you? I'll bet like 40% of this country still can't find Iraq on a map, and like the same amount think that Iraq had a bunch of WMD's when we invaded them.

 

Getting 87% of this country, plus or minus 4%, to hear about anything educational is an accomplishment.

[Mplssoxfan]

I'm frankly shocked that 87% know what Global Warming is. If you would have given me the keywords 13% and Global Warming, I would have assumed that the survey would have said that only 13% of Americans have heard of it.

 

And it would have been a lot less surprising to me than the actual results of the survey, frankly.

[Buehrle>Wood]

That's amazingly low.

[FlaSoxxJim]

That's amazingly low.

 

Our expectations of the general awareness of Americans is what's amazingly low.

 

Unless the subject matter is who's favored to win the next American Idol title, that is.

[Texsox]

Yep, I was impressed. What would be even more interesting is how many believe the Dems invented it to make Bush look bad.

[Soxy]

But most Americans have also heard about evolution. Doesn't mean they believe in it (or understand what it actually means). Would be interesting to see how many people actually believe it's having a negative effect and how many think it's just natural.

[vandy125]

I am also impressed that only 13% have never heard about it. Whenever things like this come out, I am usually surprised by the amount of people in the US who do not know about something.

 

Ever watch Jay Leno's "Jay Walking", 1 vs 100, or Street Smarts? They ask a lot of "easy" questions that many people do not get.

[southsider2k5]

Throw me into the surprised it was that low group. American's in general are completely clueless about what goes on around them, and even more clueless about what the rest of the world is like, and how they think.

[Mplssoxfan]

Our expectations of the general awareness of Americans is what's amazingly low.

 

Unless the subject matter is who's favored to win the next American Idol title, that is.

 

Funny Story...

 

A few years ago, a woman said to me, while I was working, "you look like a big Reuben guy".

 

I looked at her and said, "actually, I don't really like sauerkraut that much."

 

She looked at me like I had grown a third eye, and then explained the Ruben Studdard phenomenon to me.

 

Clearly, I'm ignorant when it comes to American Idol, and I'm cool with that.

[mr_genius]

Funny Story...

 

A few years ago, a woman said to me, while I was working, "you look like a big Reuben guy".

 

I looked at her and said, "actually, I don't really like sauerkraut that much."

 

She looked at me like I had grown a third eye, and then explained the Ruben Studdard phenomenon to me.

 

Clearly, I'm ignorant when it comes to American Idol, and I'm cool with that.

 

 

[Chisoxfn]

Our expectations of the general awareness of Americans is what's amazingly low.

 

Unless the subject matter is who's favored to win the next American Idol title, that is.

Those are the types of questions I'd fail.

[bmags]

more than 25,000 Internet users

 

??? would like to see the journal

[FlaSoxxJim]

Of course, all those highly informed Americans had to learn about global warming without any help from the administration. The ongoing broad and blatant political interferance to squelch the science and intimidate the scientists is unethical and repugnant.

 

Bush Administration Has Pressured Half Of Gov’t Scientists To Downplay Global Warming

 

hansen1.gif A new report presented to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project shows 435 instances in which the Bush administration interfered into the global warming work of government scientists over the past five years. Some other findings of the survey:

 

– 46 percent of government scientists “personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words ‘climate change,’ ‘global warming,’ or other similar terms from a variety of communications.”

 

– 46 percent “perceived or personally experienced new or unusual administrative requirements that impair climate-related work.”

 

– 38 percent “perceived or personally experienced the disappearance or unusual delay of websites, reports, or other science-based materials relating to climate.”

 

– 25 percent “perceived or personally experienced situations in which scientists have actively objected to, resigned from, or removed themselves from a project because of pressure to change scientific findings.”

 

James Hansen, the government’s top global warming researcher, has also revealed that the Bush administration tried to prevent him from speaking freely about global warming to the media. In 2004, the administration also had a requirement that “NASA press officers listened in whenever NASA scientists spoke with reporters, either on the telephone or in person.”

 

All this and more at the Union of Concerned Scientists website

[StrangeSox]

Here's a nice study of the average young American's ignorance:

 

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2006/030506map.htm

http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/st...gepublisher.com

Edited January 31, 2007 by StrangeSox

[Texsox]

Of course, all those highly informed Americans had to learn about global warming without any help from the administration. The ongoing broad and blatant political interferance to squelch the science and intimidate the scientists is unethical and repugnant.

 

 

 

All this and more at the Union of Concerned Scientists website

 

I view self reporting surveys like this with a great deal of mistrust.