Forecast looks inclement for a nation in denial
THERE is no hotter topic than climate right now, but those in the States who believe it is down to global warming are being left out in the cold.
A new 23-country survey conducted by the You-Gov-Cambridge Globalism Project found the US has the highest percentage of climate denial among first-world nations, behind only Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
A total of 13% of Americans responded that “human activity is not responsible at all” for climate change, 5% denied the climate is even changing, and a further 13% did not know whether the climate is changing or people are responsible.
The findings come as the world’s leading climate scientists warn there are only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of one-and-ahalf degree celsius, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
Despite a drive among many countries to do more to protect the environment, people in the States have hardened their views in spite all the possible evidence, increasingly frequent and severe weather events inside their own borders, and a wave of dire warnings.
However, we should not be surprised their beliefs exist on such a scale.
The current administration was elected in part by promising to reignite America’s fossil fuel industries, open up vast tracts of land and ocean to energy exploration, and withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, all in the name of jobs.
The White House has repeatedly called in to question the logic and science of climate change while continuing to show its complete ignorance of the subject.
When it comes to green issues, America thinks it means money, not Mother Nature.