Denying Reality - An American Trait

Americans have to be the biggest truth-deniers in the developed world. The only countries, outside of the U.S., where less than a majority of the population believes global climate change (sometimes called global warming) is at least partially caused by man are the undeveloped nations of Africa (32%) and the Middle East (37%) and undeveloped Asia (39%). I can understand the undeveloped nations not understanding because one of the things not fully developed there is education -- but the United States has no such excuse (although the right-wing Republicans seem bent on destroying our system of public education right now).

The United States has a different problem. It is run by the corporations, who can buy all the politicians they need and pay for all the propaganda they want -- enough to keep the public from demanding these corporations become good citizens and stop polluting the world. And they've been pretty successful at their efforts to put the corporate profits ahead of the environment

How successful? Well, some researchers from Yale University and George Mason University decided to find out. They conducted a nationwide survey of 1,010 adults between April 23rd and May 12th of this year (with a 3 point margin of error). The results were not encouraging. For instance, about 97% of the world's scientists agree that global warming is happening and is caused by man, but most Americans don't know that. Here are some numbers that should scare you:

WHAT % OF CLIMATE SCIENTISTS THINK GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING?
81 to 100...............13%
61 to 80...............19%
41 to 60...............23%
21 to 40...............12%
0 to 20...............3%
Don't know...............31%

WHAT % OF SCIENTISTS THINK IT IS CAUSED BY HUMANS?
81 to 100................15%
61 to 80...............18%
41 to 60...............18%
21 to 40...............12%
0 to 20...............7%
Don't know...............32%

That's pretty pitiful, but it doesn't get any better.

WHICH COMES CLOSEST TO YOUR VIEW?
Most scientists think global warming is happening..............39%
Most scientists don't think it's happening...............4%
There is a lot of disagreement among scientists about it...............40%
Don't know enough to say...............18%

ASSUMING GLOBAL WARMING IS HAPPENING, IT IS
Caused by human activities...............47%
Caused by natural changes...............35%
Caused by both...............8%
Neither, it isn't happening...............8%
Other/don't know...............2%

HOW WORRIED ARE YOU ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING?
Very worried...............9%
Somewhat worried...............43%
Not very worried...............28%
Not at all worried...............20%

WHEN WILL GLOBAL WARMING START TO HARM U.S. (WORLD)?
People are being harmed now...............32% (34%)
In 10 years...............12% (12%)
In 25 years...............13% (12%)
In 50 years...............12% (12%)
In 100 years...............11% (11%)
Never...............20% (19%)

WHICH IS CLOSEST TO YOUR VIEW?
Humans could change global warming, and will...............5%
Humans could change it, but it's unclear if they will...............41%
Humans could change it, but won't...............25%
Humans couldn't change it if they tried...............18%
Global warming is not happening...............11%

WITH THE ECONOMY IN BAD SHAPE THE U.S. CAN'T AFFORD TO REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING.
Strongly agree...............15%
Somewhat agree...............37%
Somewhat disagree...............33%
Strongly disagree...............16%

Obviously, the corporate propaganda has been very successful. People will wake up and realize they've been played for fools someday. The problem is that it'll probably be too late by then.