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Global warming survey Part 3: More about skeptics
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Key finding: 80% of skeptics disapprove of any geoengineering methods offered as a solution to global warming.
We're taking a good long look at global warming skeptics because so many of them took part in our survey. We'll compare them to other groups later in the analysis, but there's still a lot to say about skeptics that I don't think has been said before.
Yesterday we showed that skeptics are not at all monolithic and that they do in fact support some planks of President Obama's energy program--notably creating a smart electricity distribution grid. I mentioned then and I will be harping on this for eons to come that the way for President Obama to get an energy package passed is to break it into small chunks and start with the elements that even skeptics support.
We saw yesterday that almost half of all skeptics would pay $150 a year in new taxes to weatherise homes and offices, and 35% would pay the same to help make public transportation more attractive. The big surprise was that 64% would pay to make the electricity grid more efficient.
But the next question in the survey asked them to pick just one. Again, fixing the grid was top choice, but with only 32% of the skeptics choosing it. More than a quarter (26%) of skeptics chose weatherising houses and offices, and 13% chose improving public transportation. Another 13% chose subsidising research into green energy sources. The reason the percentages dropped is because so many skeptics--383 of them--have their own ideas. We'll talk about that another time.
The survey then asked respondents what we can or should do about global warming. Again, (surprise!), skeptics are skeptics. Three out of four (73%) responded "Ignore it--it will go away." And 21% said we should deal with it after it happens.
But when asked what might be useful avenues to explore in fighting global warming, skeptics were even stronger in their disapproval of geoengineering. Eight out of ten (80%) said that all of the geoengineering options presented (ranging from planting trees to pumping aerosols into the atmosphere) just seemed crazy to them. And if they were forced to pick one, by a significant majority (60%) they would choose planting trees.
As far as their information and media recognition, 99% know who Al Gore is. Not one of them consider him a trusted source of information. Gavin Schmidt, James Hansen and Joe Romm, suffered similar fates--most skeptics know them, but don't really trust them. (I was not widely recognised, but 62 skeptics trust me as an information resource.)
The two people they trust for information on global warming are Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre. By a huge margin. 91% said they trust Watts, and 75% said McIntyre. Third place went to Roger Pielke Sr. (55%), 4th was Roy Spencer, with 51% and Roger Pielke Jr. rounded out the top 5 with 48%.
Next, we'll talk about other groups, and start comparing the differences between them.
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