We often wonder about the prevailing mood in the population towards our favourite subject. What do people really think about global warming?
Opinion polls are the only credible way of determining this, of course, so we tend to examine them for signs. Sometimes, we make do with small samples and apocryphal stories impossible to verify. Here’s one of those.
A member of the NZ Climate Science Coalition gave this concise description of a silly television story a while back:
And this morning’s TV One Breakfast Session showed a photo of a polar bear cub on its mother’s back because there is now so little polar ice that they have to ride on mummy’s back since they cannot swim – all because of global warming – and the item came from the WWF, who are a trusted outfit with authority on the subject……… Yeah , Right !! This was dwelt on a couple of times as a heart-wrenching thingy showing how serious global warming is. TV1 has a large audience. Unfortunately, political decisions are based on what the great unwashed voting public want, not on unpopular facts or logic. The latter does not win elections. As we are all painfully aware, the “silly” side is what sells newspapers and TV time – and attracts funding.
A member of the NZ Climate Science Coalition, addressing another member on a silly polar bear item aired on TV1, said this earlier:
You’re right, but I think there’s actually a ground swell of growing scepticism out there among the voting public. More often than not, when I bring the subject of AGW up with someone quite random, the reaction is one of complete boredom or sceptical dismissal. Most such people I happen to meet do not know anything of the scientific argument, but are sceptical or cynical nonetheless.
Interestingly, I met someone on the weekend who works for a company that “calculates people’s (or companies’) carbon footprints,” he says. And he was a sceptic! It was just a job to him so I guess he has to go along with it for his bread and butter. But pin him down, and he doesn’t believe the hype.
So there’s hope. All we need is for the politicians and the media to wake up to it.
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Presumably this person who works for a company “that calculates carbon footprints” is referring to the CarboNZero project at Landcare Research.
This whole brand screams “scam” to me. When I travel to Wellington from Christchurch, I have to travel through a “carbon neutral” airport (certified by the above), and then eschew the “carbon neutral taxis” and take the carbon belching (non-certified) bus into town.
Then, I can settle into my hotel room, and watch ads with Jeremy Wells telling us about “dirty global-warming causing CO2” in Meridian ads.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world looks on in bemusement as the media and political classes continue to live in their bubble telling us about the “climate crisis”.