Stop blaspheming against Jesus.

I was watching 60 Minutes last week, and they had Al Gore on. At one point they were talking about his $300 million ad campaign on Climate Change, he said that most people in this country believe in climate change, that people's opinion on this matter is like knowing the world is flat. Part of me finds that kind of hard to believe. I go to a fairly liberal school, and most of my friends are on the climate change train (except for one, but he's the only Republican I am friends with, at least that I know of). Anyway, I've read plenty on this board and else where regarding climate change, I feel like it is certainly not true that a vast majority of the people in this country believe that climate change is real and human made.

this board is not a very good scope of the "average person". i believe the majority in america believe in it

look how popular hybrid vehicles are and all these ad campaigns for protecting the environment. it wouldnt be such a huge issue in this election is the majority of americans didnt care. bush wouldnt have admitted he believed in climate change if he wasnt losing big support over the issue

I highly doubt most people buy hybrids because they're eco-friendly. They buy them because of the gas prices

im on a few prius forums and i cant think of a single poster that isnt an environmentalist. but thats just one point. i think the general awareness expressed by people, in the media and by our politicians is the biggest indicator of mainstream feelings

fixed

When hybrids were introduced I'm sure most people who bought them were environmentalists. When did they debut, five or six years ago? In 2002 gas was about $1.40/gallon.

Now it's $3.30/gallon.

For the first time in my life at least, gas prices are adversely affecting how I drive and what car I buy in the next few months.

I support anything that helps the environment, but I think people are/will start to buy hybrids for economical reasons before they buy them for environmental reasons

Are you actually being serious?

i was laughing at that too.... and then i realised it was cathryn speaking, and i don't think she's joking.

do you think global climate change and the environment would be such a big issue in this upcoming election if the general public didnt care?

Cat, what if the climate started showing a trend towards massive global cooling? Would you change any of your positions?

if that became the leading theory of climate/global researchers and i read about it then most definitely it would change some of my ideas. but wouldnt change my ideas about the importance of alternative energy and conservation


(i know whats coming so ill just say it now - but its not the leading theory etc etc )

It's called global climate change now for a reason...

I wasn't going to say that, was just curious. Although don't take it personally if I don't go to you if I'm looking for what the "leading theory" in anything is .

The only thing I will really agree with is that we need to find alternative sources of energy. I'm just sick of hearing from all the treehuggers who seem to think they'll change the entire planet in one swift stroke. Making a vehicle get 30mpg rather than 18-20 isn't going to change anything. I recall some commercial that said something like "If all cars got 30mpg+ it'd be like taking 1 million cars off the road." Sounds great right? Well there's ~200 million cars in the US, so there's a whopping 0.5% change in car pollution. Moving to completely electric cars might help, but not until we can generate clean electricity. Which I think will happen, but not next year like the treehuggers want. Until 100% clean, 100% renewable, extremely cheap electricity is developed, there will be pollution. If I had to guess or bet when this happens, I'd say some time in the next 50 years. But in the meantime, the smog layer around major metro cities is not going to diminish because you reduce car pollution output by 0.5%.

hehe, you must not know many in-the-know treehuggers... The climate change campaign is pretty much an overhaul of the way we live and produce things. but I am (pleasantly) surprise by your comment.
Al Gore's new we campaign website.