Pew survey finds US public ranks economy as highest priority policy issue, global warming as lowest:
The US public is giving the highest priority to economic issues, according to the findings of the Pew Research Center For The People & The Press January 2012 Political Survey. 86% say that strengthening the economy should be a top priority for the president and Congress this year, and 82% rate improving the job situation as a top priority. None of the other 20 issues tested in this annual survey rate as a top priority for more than 70% of Americans. Only 25% called global warming a top priority, a decrease of 13 percentage points over 5 years.
Everyone who is surprised by or not filled with dread by this will now form a line and wait to be slapped with the Salmon of Enlightenment.
Dilemma? What dilemma? – Stockholm Resilience Centre
I guess it’s time to dust off Randy Newman and play “It’s Money that Matters.”
Let’s face it: we’ve failed miserably. We’re probably entering another deadly feedback: the people who get it and have the power to change it, go live in a cabin with two goats and try to forget about this sick world.
I’m next on the list. Slowly preparing to go off grid.
Goodbye cruel world. 3% of the world’s population get what they deserve. The rest of us be damned, the other 10 million species on the planet can prepare for extinction.
Who’s responsible? About 50 to 200 people.
OK, I’ll wait to give up hope until you guys elect a climate denier/corporate dictator on November 6th.
It’s truly been a breathtaking switch since the fall of 2008 to the long term demoralizing situation we are now in where victories have become that we don’t fall back as fast as possible (i.e. Keystone XL being delayed for the new routing and approval in 2013 versus crony approval in 2011).
The current Democratic candidate for President in 2012 previously, quietly, approved two large tar sands pipelines from Canada (Keystone 1 & Alberta Clipper) shortly after getting into office (summer of 2009), in addition to numerous other anti climate change action choices while in office, after campaigning on Climate Change as one of his 3 primary issues he’d take action on. The tar sands pipelines are now operational & supplying ~ 10% of US oil imports with extremely high CO2 sour crude to midwest refineries with US consumers driving it out of their tailpipes without their knowledge (for the most part) or ability to avoid stations that use it (since nobody knows which do and which do not). While the Keystone XL would make the flow rate from Alberta faster, two big permanent straws are already in place and being used until they are stopped with legislation far in the future (can you imagine our government doing that at this point?).
Whomever the Republican candidate turns out to be for the 2012 Presidency, he’ll be even worse than the Democratic candidate – meaning he’ll actually try to kill clean energy technologies (Wind, Solar, Electric Cars) instead of tacitly supporting them (seems the difference now between the Dems and the Republicans).
We’re stuck in the US. Our current Democratic president is talking about getting natural gas into transportation now – which, as long as you don’t consider climate change (something he hasn’t since taking office), makes total political sense. At best we’re looking at 2016 for a chance at a Presidential candidate that might actually want to do something on this (versus talk) might become the Dem candidate – and as the current President has shown us with his words before election vs actions afterwords, that is probably naive.
In the mean time we have our two existing tar sands pipelines, have unlocked all the truly massive shale gas and shale oil reserves to profit and will be adding long term natural gas to US transportation infrastructure. Echoing Arne’s comments – we’ve lost, miserably.
Just being able to turn the boat around in the right direction on climate change action seems very far off indeed and the polling numbers show that among the public as well.