Poll shows Americans getting more concerned about global warming

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Most Americans blame emissions from cars and industrial plants as the primary cause of global warming and believe the United States should reduce levels even if other countries don't, a survey shows.

Fifty-six percent of poll respondents said the phenomenon of global warming has been proven, and can be largely blamed on human endeavors, such as power plants and factories, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. In comparison, 21 percent of those surveyed claimed global warming problems are caused either by natural changes or are unproven.

Sixty-six percent of Americans believe the United States should do what it can to reduce global warming, even if other nations ignore it. This compares with 52 percent of respondents who believed that way in 2001.

In that year, 34 percent thought the United States needed to reduce harmful gases only if other nations did. A much smaller proportion, 16 percent, responded that way in 2007....

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/20/warming.poll/index.html

[Barrett808]

1. k & r

[Cirque du So-What]

2. People can't ignore the warnings in their own weather any longer

I wish the corporate media would call it global climate change instead of global warming, but as long as people are waking up to reality, it's a minor bone of contention.

Global climate change was an abstract concept for a long time, but it's affecting a lot of people's local weather nowadays. My area's experiencing extreme drought, and a tornado tore up part of my city a couple of nights ago; tornado season 'officially' ended back in June.

[Triana]

3. GOOD. I hope they start DEMANDING immediate change (n/t)

[varun]

4. About time...

Its late october and leaves are still green here in Bridgeport, Connecticut

[Matilda]

5. And it's Spring in Australia, but we're having mid-summer heat.

As much as John Howard is trying to deny it, a major issue in the
forthcoming election will be climate change. Howard follows Bush in
refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, but Rudd says he will sign, and
he has community support for this.

[Delphinus]

16. Aren't you all in a serious drought situation there?

I remember reading where farmers were abandoning their lands, their animals were dying, etc., all because of the rains not coming.

[Matilda]

21. Quite possibly the worst ever.

I'm a city girl, so I haven't experienced it personally - except in rising food prices due to poor
crops.

Unfortunately, farmers tend to be very conservative, and many of them are still climate change
sceptics. Howard's power base.

[Lugnut]

7. Same here

There are a few trees that have color but not at previous levels we expect. Peak color in the Pocono Mtns. of PA is normally around October 10th to 15th.

[ckimmy57]

23. Same here in Ohio

my roses look better now then they did all summer. Temp. today reached a sunny 80 degrees. Nothing like flip flops and shorts on October 21.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Our economy could have been saved already by switching over to Wind and Solar as fast as possible,

but our oil-based administration did not have the moral will to do anything but create more war and steal more oil.

They are weak. That's their problem... if they were strong people, they would have risked everything to get us out of this nightmare.

[jwirr]

18. Reminds me of the do nothing Hoover years and the opposition

to change that faced FDR. We can make this world work for us again but not without the same kind of fight he had to wage. The die-hards will always be with us.

[whoneedstickets]

8. I think the huge drough in the south has finally had an effect...

..even rural southerners in Bama, Georgia and Mississippi have been feeling the heat-literally- this year. Nothing gets your attention like water rations.

[defendandprotect]

9. We need to demand ELECTRIC CARS . . . NATIONALIZE OUR OIL INDUSTRY!!!

These are fights worth making ---

Btw, when JFk ran for president in '60 he ran on a Democratic Platform which called for nationalizing oil --

We can replace all the gas-guzzlers on our highways in 5 years --
Raise a corporation to make electric cars -- there were 4,000 or more of them on the highways in California with very happy owners from late 1990's until about 2002. GM refused to sell them and would only lease them. After four or five years, they recalled every one of them an crushed them!!!

We can subsidize both manufacture and purchase of these cars ---


Also -- we're being smothered in imperialism/war for OIL --
which will go on as long as our oil industry is in the hands of a few private families.

WE need to force this change ---

And, by the way, I just had my gas-guzzler in the other day for repair/service -- $1500!!!


PS: PLEASE RENT THE MOVIE . . . "WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?"

[AdHocSolver]

22. Information and links about electric vehicles that Big Oil and Big Auto don't want you to know.

The movie "Who Killed the Electric Car" is about General Motors all electric vehicle the EV1. You can get some insight about this vehicle and how popular it was by going to http://www.wikipedia.org/ and typing EV1 in the search box. At the bottom of the article is a link to the wiki article about the movie and some other links as well.

Edwin Black in his book "Internal Combustion" tells how the corporations defeated electric vehicle development back around 1912. It seems that Thomas Edison and Henry Ford worked together on development of an all electric vehicle at Edison's laboratory complex. When they reached the stage of designing and setting up production facilities at Ford's factory, a mysterious fire broke out at Edison's laboratory complex destroying most of it. They eventually gave up on the project.

Later on, in the 1950's and 1960's, General Motors spearheaded a drive to kill mass transit in the U.S. They succeeded in dismantling light rail and trolley car systems that had provided cheap transportation in America's major cities for over 60 years. This is also covered in Black's book.

Take notice that ethanol, biofuels, and hydrogen fuel cells will NOT EVER solve the problems of high cost, oil depletion, global climate change, or independence from the oil companies. These stop gap measures will NOT save oil, reduce pollution, or save you money. They are designed to preserve the oil companies' profits and the auto companies' profits.

Electric vehicles are the BEST way to save oil, reduce pollution, save money, and still have cars that are fun to drive. Briefly, electric vehicles can provide from 50 to 100 equivalent MPG, even for large vehicles, because electric vehicles are the most efficient kind available. There is little wasted energy in an electric motor.

Most of the gasoline in your internal combustion (IC) engine powered car is wasted in the form of heat. The combustion itself, the friction of all the moving parts, the waste in the complex transmission required, none of it propels the car.

IC engines require oil changes, cooling system maintenance, transmission maintenance, tune-ups, mufflers, etc., and are composed of hundreds of parts that can fail and require costly repairs. Electric motors, on the other hand, contain a comparative handful of parts that can last for years without needing maintenance. They need no complex cooling system, no complex transmission system, no exhaust system, are significantly quieter, and can provide as good performance, or better performance, than a gasoline engine. Electric motors are effectively zero emission devices.

The Tesla Roadster, http://www.teslamotors.com, gets 135 MPG equivalent, can travel up to 245 miles on a charge, and can go from 0 to 60 MPH in under 4 seconds. The only problem with it is that it is hand built by a small company so its cost is out of reach of many people. Large-scale mass production techniques would reduce its costs significantly. A Chevrolet manufactured in small lots the same way would cost well over $100,000.

The major reason that GM and the other auto companies don't want electric vehicles is because they would then not profit from selling you all those expensive parts and maintenance, not to mention loss of dealer profits, that they get from selling IC powered cars.

[defendandprotect]

25. Saw "Who Killed The Electric Car?" a short time ago and run around here telling everyone to see it -

It' a great movie -- which got no publicity as far as I can recall!!

Okay . . . so now there are two of us running around here telling the DUers about the movie and the cars -- !!! Great!!!

QUOTE:

The Tesla Roadster, http://www.teslamotors.com, gets 135 MPG equivalent, can travel up to 245 miles on a charge, and can go from 0 to 60 MPH in under 4 seconds. The only problem with it is that it is hand built by a small company so its cost is out of reach of many people. Large-scale mass production techniques would reduce its costs significantly. A Chevrolet manufactured in small lots the same way would cost well over $100,000.

The major reason that GM and the other auto companies don't want electric vehicles is because they would then not profit from selling you all those expensive parts and maintenance, not to mention loss of dealer profits, that they get from selling IC powered cars.UNQUOTE


Re GM . . . probably good enough reason --
but I also suspect that the oil industry owns GM . . .

And, you're telling me --
I had not even a leak but a tiny seepage of my oil --
top of motor had to be taken off to close it off -- $1,000

[calteacherguy]

10. No Nukes? nt

[nam78_two]

11. K&R.nt

[cartach]

12. Polls results ?

So what? The results could be 96%,stay that way and get higher, and still those who are supposed to be representing the people will not begin to make the necessary changes.That's what democracy is all about in the United States.It seems to me that polls have become the 'opiate of the people' and as long as the polls show what the majority wants,which of course they do, then we assume that things will get done,maybe not right away,but soon enough. That is enough to put us back into a state of complacency for a while.Long enough for elected representatives to lay on their lies while the fuss dies down and our attentions are diverted elsewhere.Usually by a new poll on a different subject.Meanwhile no decisions are made and nothing gets done.

[Mojambo]

13. SOMEBODY got a BAD sunburn! n/t

[onehandle]

14. I cut our lawn TWO Times this Summer. Now the trees are still Totally green.

They are usually half brown or more at this point and 20% of the leaves would be on the ground. Barely any have fallen.

We are doomed.

[Delphinus]

17. I'd like to *stop* cutting - mine is still growing!

We did have a spate of dry during the summer - I had to water my garden every other day due to no rain - but here it is, the waning days of October, and I'll be out there next week, cutting my grass again.

[onehandle]

19. Ours is growing again.

About this time of the year I use our mulching mower to start grinding up leaves (I don't rake).

Now we have few leaves, but new grass growth. I'll cut our lawn one more time at least before switching to the mulcher.

[pippin]

15. Get Them Behemoths

off the road for a start. Tax the Hummers and other gas guzzling SUVs that are still rampant whatever Americans might mouth off about the environment.

[bronxiteforever]

20. K & R

[Harper_is_Bush]

24. The numbers are still too low, thanks to the denial community. n/t