I think we can all feel this as we read the papers, watch tv and listen to the radio. Big Energy's relentless campaign to protect its profits at the expense of the planet has been gaining traction in the US over the past year. Canada is no better I fear. Damn the science. To hell with the scientists. We are living in truly scary times.
The climate change talks in Barcelona went almost nowhere last week - at least not as far as people were saying they needed to go in order for a new deal to be hammered out next month in Copenhagen. So we may need another year before a comprehensive deal can be negotiated.
George Monbiot takes a look at the regrowth of the cancerous climate change deniers.
Death Denial
There is no point in denying it: we’re losing. Climate change denial is spreading like a contagious disease. It exists in a sphere which cannot be reached by evidence or reasoned argument; any attempt to draw attention to scientific findings is greeted with furious invective. This sphere is expanding with astonishing speed.
A survey last month by the Pew Research Centre suggests that the proportion of Americans who believe there’s solid evidence that the world has been warming over the past few decades has fallen from 71% to 57% in just 18 months(1). Another survey, conducted in January by Rasmussen Reports, suggests that, due to a sharp rise since 2006, US voters who believe that global warming is the result of natural causes (44%) now outnumber those who believe it is caused by human action (41%)(2)...
It certainly doesn’t reflect the state of the science, which has hardened dramatically over the past two years... The debate about global warming that’s raging on the internet and in the rightwing press does not reflect any such debate in the scientific journals.
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