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U.S. hunters and fishers tricked into supporting climate bill
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Some U.S. hunters and fishers are lobbying congress to pass the Cap and Trade bill in an effort to protect their hunting and fishing sport. Unfortunately they have tricked into this by disingenuous polling.
According to a Reuters report, a 2008 poll commissioned by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) reported 85% agreement with the following statement:
"We can improve the environment and strengthen the economy by investing in renewable energy technologies that create jobs while reducing global warming."
Lets dissect that question. There really are three parts to it. First, "We can improve the environment and strengthen the economy by investing in renewable energy technologies.” Everybody who is paying attention will agree with this part of the question. Yes, we can improve the environment by investing in and using renewable energy technologies, no doubt about it. And yes, we can improve the economy by reducing our dependence on foreign energy sources by using home-grown renewables. Can't argue with this part of the question.
Provided that renewable energy sources can actually take the place of conventional electrical generation. This is not necessarily a known fact, but the only way we will be able to verify the truth or falsehood of the statement is to try it – so sure, lets put some serious money into some renewable energy demonstration projects and see if they can handle the load.
Second, add “that create jobs” to the question. In a souring economy, anything that promises to generate jobs will meet broad approval. So again, it is not surprising that a statement that said "We can improve the environment and strengthen the economy by investing in renewable energy technologies that create jobs” would receive broad support.
So far so good, and now we sneak in the last four words: “while reducing global warming.” The question to this point has hooked the you in and put you in the frame of mind to agree with the statement and so, as expected by the originators of the poll, broad agreement was achieved. But does it really mean that hunters and fishers actually support the climate bills pending before Congress?
Not really, since the question itself is loaded. A more honest poll would have at least separated the global warming portion out into two back-to-back questions. One, do you support increased spending on renewable energy production? And two, are you concerned that global warming is impacting your sport? A different answer may have been obtained and this, of course, was not the goal.
The question in the poll was carefully worded to provide an intended result. And it worked like a charm with 85% support. Then everything but “global warming” in the question was ignored and thus we have broad support from hunters and fishers for the climate bill.
This type of polling is known in the trade as “push polling.” It's a polling technique intended to force an outcome under the guise of taking a poll. You see it all the time in the mailings you receive from your Congressional Representative, and it occurs regularly in national polls as well.
This is why it is always important, when considering the results of a new poll, to be able to see the exact questions that were asked, and if possible, the order in which they were asked. Push polling is not always as blatant as this. Sometimes the order of questions in the poll are designed to lead you into a proper mindset to provide the desired answer to the key question.
Hunters and fishers were tricked by the NWF into providing them with the ammunition they needed in order to promote the organization;s political agenda. This particular poll tells us next to nothing about the opinions of the NWF's membership. Instead, it simply states that the NWF wanted a particular result and they went out and got it.
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