Americans now cool to global warming

October 22, 10:07 AMLA Ecopolitics ExaminerPaul Taylor

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The new trend among common-sense Americans is to doubt the claims of alarmist environmentalists, “green” politicians and advertisers, Al Gore and the United Nation’s hysterical claims of a global warming apocalypse.

A new survey by the non-partisan Pew Research Center reports a sharp decline  over the past year of Americans who consider global warming to be a serious problem. According to the October survey among 1,500 adults, 35% said global warming is a serious problem, down from 44% in April 2008 -- a drop of about 20%. The survey also indicates a decline of Americans convinced that global temperatures are rising because of human activity. Only 36% are now convinced, down from 47% last year -- about a 20% drop.

Regrettably, fewer than half of those surveyed have heard of the “cap-and-trade” greenhouse gas tax scheme that Democrats want to add to Obama’s other big-government policies. Cap-and-trade CO2 control systems were first adopted by the European Union (EU) countries in 2005. The theoretical climate benefit of cap-and-trade (or carbon tax) systems is that by making companies pay for CO2 emissions, government forces the switch to carbon-neutral or renewable technologies. Since 2005, the EU’s cap-and-trade system has failed both the environmental goals and the market goals; all at considerably increased costs to conventional energy users with no climate benefits.