Sunday
May232010
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Climate disinterest
May 23, 2010 Climate: other Energy The Guardian is reporting a continuing decline in all sorts of indicators of public concern over global warming:
...interest in climate change fell from 80% of respondents in 2006, to 71% last year and now stands at only 62%. Only 80% say they are interested in where electrical power is made, down from 82% the previous year.
Other recent polls have recorded a similar drop in public alarm about the imminence of climate-triggered disaster. The number of climate change agnostics – those unsure whether human activity is warming the planet – has risen from 25% in 2007 to 33% now.
I must say a bit more interest in where electrical power is made is probably warranted, particularly now we have Chris Huhne in charge of energy policy in the UK.
Reader Comments (21)
What’s interesting about the Guardian’s report is the journalist’s take on Climategate, which he considers a possible factor in the decline in public concern about global warming. He refers to it twice, first as “rows over statistics on global warming”, then as “the furore over the leaking of global warming data from the University of East Anglia”.
He clearly hasn’t the foggiest idea what Climategate was about, and in this is probably typical of the public in general. Any idea that Climategate was going to change public attitudes was clearly hopelessly optimistic.
I'd love to see the public being asked questions like "how pissed would you be if you found out that your kids were scared stiff by political propoganda?"
"How angry would you get if your lights and heating failed, in mid-winter, brought about by ephermeral and wishfull energy strategies?"
"on the scale of bankruptcy to starvation, how do you rate your children's opportunities thirty years hence?"
Gawd bless the infanticidal morallists, they meant well and that, like removal of DDT, must go down just hunky-dorie, with the spirits of the sainted departed!
Thanks for the ref, the first sentence is classic early Twenty first century :
My bold - and continuing being bold - isn't the lame acceptance of this lazy projection just the kind of shite that libertarians that read this site should pick up on?
The average cold winter was only harsh in Rushbridgers mind ;)
The recent weather and nasty stuff said by whom? There has been very little climategate coverage lately - although
I really suspect that all the ramifications about a result of a survey commissioned by a French energy company about the numbers of those interested in where Britain's electricity comes from, may not be as simple as depicted here .. but the Grauniad just operates as their mouthpiece when it suits them it seems.
Steve2
You see rather hot about this minor little poll. Perhaps you should breath into a small brown bag and let the CO2 calm you down.
Yougov has this recent climate survey summary:
The majority of the British public believe that Planet Earth is experiencing climate change, but few place the blame entirely on human activity. A significant 84% agreed with the statement that the planet is warming, but only 18% believe human activity is mainly responsible; most (58%) feel that other factors have a part to play. Eight percent think that human activity, in comparison to other factors, is not responsible at all.
A small but noticeable eight percent refute the idea that the planet is warming at all
See:
http://today.yougov.co.uk/life/climate-change-blame
Frank Brown you seem too much of a cliche ye' sen, are you goin to stay around and explain where you think I was exhaling too quickly?
It seems that 2006/2007 was the high water mark of climate change fears, and it would take some seriously, catastrophically hot weather events, or maybe a super super-El Nino to reverse this, now.
Like Geoff, I think that the public does not generally know much, and cares less, about Climategate (let alone Glaciergate and all the other "-gates" which have followed.) Climate change has simply faded from the public radar - being told that the rather damp or average-seeming summer they have just experienced was the fifth warmest ever, does not tend to impress people much.
Events such as facing redundancy and higher bills for energy, petrol and food have immeasurably more impact, and I think we may well see this become very evident in the next few months and years.
steve2 cliche..."shite that libertarians". It was just a poll, point in time thing. Blame the French of course...explains everthing. I just think your getting all excited over such a little insignificant poll.
Frank, sort your point of view out.
Think for a bit.
My point of view is simply that the research is just starting and I refuse to be bum rushed into a corner. I detest fear mongering and anything but the facts. Knee jerk reactions have unintended consequences that have alreay upset economies, humanity and created future problems that will stay around to haunt us.
@ Frank, I hate fear mongering too.
Bishop, your headline writer needs a proof-reader?
Disinterest relates to impartiality or neutrality but still engagement with the subject. A better word would be uninterested which means simply not interested and not wanting to engage.
Tilde Guillemet
Disinterest relates to impartiality or neutrality but still engagement with the subject.
American Heritage Dictionary:
dis·in·ter·est (d¹s-¹n“t…r-¹st, -¹n“tr¹st) n. 1. Freedom from selfish bias or self-interest; impartiality. 2. Lack of interest; indifference.
Compact Oxford English Dictionary
disinterest
• noun 1 impartiality. 2 lack of interest.
I don't see anything about "engagement" at all. And as another member pointed out --
geoffchambers
He clearly hasn’t the foggiest idea what Climategate was about, and in this is probably typical of the public in general. Any idea that Climategate was going to change public attitudes was clearly hopelessly optimistic.
Sadly, I must agree with you. However, the fact we froze our butts off this winter has had an effect.
Don Pablo,
Next time you are up before the court, would you prefer a disinterested judge or an uninterested one?
The COED version says 'lack if interest' meaning not having an benefit (or harm) from the outcome. To illustrate this meaning :- "It would not be in my interests for the tax department to find out about my money laundering"
I'm with you Tilde. There is a useful distinction between disinterested as in not having a financial or other stake in the issue, and uninterested, as in not giving a toss, and if people don't bother with it, it will be lost, and the language will be poorer. While I am in pedant mode, refute means to provide disproof, not just to object or disagree. When politicians or local government officials say "I refute the allegations" they mean nothing of the kind.
Planet-saving action heros are complaining that no one cares about the issue anymore. Lewis Gordon Pugh (see my website) was disappointed that Global Warming was hardly a topic in the last general election,
People are waking up and realising there are other real pressing problems out there. Nobody wants to play "Let's Save The Planet" anymore, accept for Pugh.
"except for Pugh", that ought to read.
People are now realising that the planet does not need saving. There is over 1 billion years of life left in the old girl.
Tilde Guillemet
"Next time you are up before the court, would you prefer a disinterested judge or an uninterested one?"
Well, I don't get that experience very often. In fact, I haven't had it. But if I were (please note subjunctive mood) to go before a court, I really don't want either a disinterested judge or a uninterested one. What I would want is an attentive IMPARTIAL judge. I believe that is the word you are confusing with "disinterested."
David S
When I hear the word ‘refute’ I reach for my Fowler (the modern Burchfield edition).
“In the 1980s the police, trade union officials and other sternly honest authorities were forever 'refuting' (that is denying) allegations of brutality, malpractice, dishonesty and so on.”
The problem is, of course, that if you 'deny' anything these days you are immediately labelled as mad, or bad, or both.
and not forget the new economic "climate"...