Throughout the decade from 1998 to 2008, Democrats swung around more solidly behind climate concern, but Republican sentiment stayed roughly steady. Right around 2008, however, there was a sharp uptick in skepticism about climate change, almost exclusively among far-right conservatives.
Now, what happened in 2008 that might have turned conservatives against climate? Hm … thinking … wait, wasn’t there an election that year? Why yes, I believe there was. Black Democrat took office, as I recall.
I’ve said all this dozens of times. But I still see analyses of climate silence that draw on grand theories about “the public.” It’s not “the public” that’s behind the shift on climate. It’s the right-wing. It’s asymmetrical polarization. Until we discuss it in those terms, we won’t understand it or be able to address it.
h/t to Marc Morano
They haven’t a clue.
They have a clue, but being lying Bastards takes precedence.
What is a far-right conservative? Or for that matter what is a far left wing liberal? (Communist?)
If that’s his code word for “fascist” then he should just say so. (I.e., “I think conservatives are fascists but if I actually came out and said that I would look obviously stupid, so I’ll say the same thing in code, wink wink.”)
And BTW, scepticism increased in 2008 because up until that point there had been a lot of warm summers and the public was told repeatedly this was the new normal. After 2008 there were also a number of other very cold winters in different parts of the world.
Even “fascists” are on the left side. The left vs right meme is BS anyway. It doesn’t even make sense. When it comes to personal liberty/freedom, far left is totalitarianism. Far right is anarchy. Liberals are idiots.
Around 2007, conservative bloggers like Marc Marano and Anthony Watts appeared, who were able to blow holes in the so-called settled science. Then came Climategate, a series of cold winters and evidence that whatever warming there had been was leveling off or even reversing. The AGW crowd responded by saying for the first time that cold weather was consistent with warming. That argument was not acceptable to many people. That, plus cheating/lying/hysteria on the part of alarmists and the buffoonery on the part of people like Al Gore has marginalized the whole movement.
Rejection of government propaganda and exercise of free speech may be hurting the religious belief of government employees.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-24/melting-ice-runway-puts-freeze-on-antarctic-flights/4331770
It’s crap new storys like this that is behind climate skepticism.
Antarctica melts in January. NEWSFLASH!
But the Aurora Australis is stuck in the sea ice for the next month or so.
Who edits this gumph?
AUSTRALIA’S $46 million Antarctic airstrip is melting, leaving the government scrambling to find a new air link to the frozen continent.
The Wilkins runway — carved into ice near Casey station, about 3400 kilometres south-west of Hobart — was commissioned under the Howard government and hailed at its 2008 opening by then Environment Minister Peter Garrett.
But unexpected surface melt has sharply curtailed use of the summer-time airstrip.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/frozen-46m-runway-melting-20121023-283nk.html
Wilkins runway 66° 41′ 27″ S, 111° 31′ 25″ E
http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Wilkins_Runway¶ms=66_41_27_S_111_31_25_E_type:airport_region:AU
you can find it on Google Earth
A polar circle is either the Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle. On Earth, the Arctic Circle is located at a latitude of 66° 33′ 44″ N, and the Antarctic Circle is located at a latitude of 66° 33′ 44″ S
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_circle
66° 33′ 44″ Antarctic Circle
66° 41′ 27″ Wilkins runway
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polarkreis_-_zwischen_Narvik_%26_Mo_i_Rana_Norwegen.JPG
You think someone with a brain thought of that spot to build a runway on the ice ? If the sun is warm enough in Norway to make plants grow don’t you think it is warm enough to melt the upper part of the runway on the Antarctic spring and summer ?
Wow Grist – here we go again – trying to turn this into a witch hunt for imaginery extremists instead of discussing “science” – why would that be? – Oh that’s right – AGW alarmists have lost the rational genunie scientific debate. Resorting to this kind of argument is exactly what you expect from religious fanatics who can no longer hide behind a pretense of “reason”.
A perfect example of racism on display. Liberals saw a black man elected. That is all they saw, because that is all they can see. They only see the color of a man’s skin, not the content of the man’s character or his political philosophy.
Conservatives saw a raging liberal elected. One who proceeded to nationalize about 20% of the US economy. It is the liberal policies that conservatives have ALWAYS been against. I doubt seriously that Dr. Walter E. Williams, Thomas Sowell, J.C. Watts, etc. are black hating bigots. What they are is simply American Conservatives. And they are stating the same things as all other American conservatives.
As long as racists control the democrat party and the liberal left, they will never understand the right. They do not have the intelligence to.
Skepticism over AGW was burgeoning well before the ascendency of B. Hussen. For example, Chris Horner’s book, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming,” came out in 2007. B. Hussein and his minions like Van Johnson and Lisa Jackson are the only blacks that give a damn about AGW, and that’s only because they’re paid to do so by their rich white liberal benefactors.
How long can you continue to say that the sky is falling until people start to notice #1 the sky doesn’t appear to be falling, or #2 Notice that if this is what it’s like when the sky is falling then it must not be so bad.
The Climate Liars are becoming desperate as their house of lies falls apart. They’ll say or do anything to get their way. They’ve abandoned logic and reason, morality and ethics. I expect they’ll try and impose laws that will criminalize anti-global warming speech or writing and use the police and courts to impose their insane ideology upon us all. They already have the EPA doing their dirty work. If this fails I expect them to resort to violence and terrorism. The Climate Liars are very dangerous people. Don’t underestimate their capability for evil.
I don’t underestimate their capability for evil, but luckily, that capability is limited by their limited intelligence.
“Now, what happened in 2008 that might have turned conservatives against climate? ”
What happened was Climategate less than one year later which showed the AGW movement to be a scam and it’s leading scientists to be liars and frauds. So which is more likely be the cause of rising climate skepticism, a black president or ironclad email proof that AGW scientists are agenda-driven liars and frauds? Only a flaming idiot like the Grist writer or our resident retard David Appel would choose the former.