Climate Change Skeptics Gain Ground In Britain

By on May 25, 2010 in News 7
Image from Global Warming Art (GNU)

Image from Global Warming Art (GNU)

What’s going on in the UK? First the new government swears off spying on its citizens and now Britons are changing their minds about man-made climate change. Report from the New York Times:

LONDON — Last month hundreds of environmental activists crammed into an auditorium here to ponder an anguished question: If the scientific consensus on climate change has not changed, why have so many people turned away from the idea that human activity is warming the planet?

Nowhere has this shift in public opinion been more striking than in Britain, where climate change was until this year such a popular priority that in 2008 Parliament enshrined targets for emissions cuts as national law. But since then, the country has evolved into a home base for a thriving group of climate skeptics who have dominated news reports in recent months, apparently convincing many that the threat of warming is vastly exaggerated.

A survey in February by the BBC found that only 26 percent of Britons believed that “climate change is happening and is now established as largely manmade,” down from 41 percent in November 2009. A poll conducted for the German magazine Der Spiegel found that 42 percent of Germans feared global warming, down from 62 percent four years earlier.

And London’s Science Museum recently announced that a permanent exhibit scheduled to open later this year would be called the Climate Science Gallery — not the Climate Change Gallery as had previously been planned.

“Before, I thought, ‘Oh my God, this climate change problem is just dreadful,’ ” said Jillian Leddra, 50, a musician who was shopping in London on a recent lunch hour. “But now I have my doubts, and I’m wondering if it’s been overhyped.”

Perhaps sensing that climate is now a political nonstarter, David Cameron, Britain’s new Conservative prime minister, was “strangely muted” on the issue in a recent pre-election debate, as The Daily Telegraph put it, though it had previously been one of his passions…

[continues in the New York Times]

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  • HOD

    >If the scientific consensus on climate change has not changed, why have so many people turned away from the idea that human activity is warming the planet?

    Perhaps people are skeptical of man-made global warming claims because (a) so much of it is based on hypothetical computer modeling; (b) so much of it is based on the same appeals to fear that the Bush administration used to pass the Patriot Act, and the Obama administration used to pass health care reform and government bailouts.

    “Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.”

    Michael Crichton, 2005.

  • Markov

    See: http://www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/

    If you think that the oil companies are the only people unduly influencing this debate, you're sadly mistaken. The possibility of a $3 Trillion per year carbon market has a rogues gallery of the greediest companies (Goldman Sachs, Citibank, etc.) pouring money into maintaining the appearance of a catastrophe.

    The Brits are out in front on this issue. After all, the IPCC just blew up in their backyard w/ the leaking of the FOIA emails. And, if you believed the 'nothing to see here' cover story on those emails, you're only letting yourself be fooled. Think for yourself. Read for yourself. They've been practicing fraud.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    I can answer the premise question here.

    Because…the man selling the need to do nothing at all has a much easier time making his pitch than the man selling the need to make some personal sacrifices/behavior changes.

    It doesn't help that cap and trade IS an epic scam at a time when real action is called for…but that doesn't change the essentials behind my answer above.

  • alienevolved

    as a brit heres my take on subject
    weve swallowed down that much “dumb juice” in the past,we are now being copiously sick on the well polished shoes of the establishment,which is the only time the problems are even acknowledged,let alone addressed!

  • alienevolved

    as a brit heres my take on subject
    weve swallowed down that much “dumb juice” in the past,we are now being copiously sick on the well polished shoes of the establishment,which is the only time the problems are even acknowledged,let alone addressed!

  • Anonymous

    Recent research by Henrik Svensmark and his group at the Danish National
    Space Center points to the real cause of the recent warming trend. In a
    series of experiments on the formation of clouds, these scientists have
    shown that fluctuations in the Sun’s output cause the observed changes in the
    Earth’s temperature.

    In the past, scientists believed the fluctuations in the Sun’s output were
    too small to cause the observed amount of temperature change, hence the need
    to look for other causes like carbon dioxide. However, these new
    experiments show that fluctuations in the Sun’s output are in fact large
    enough, so there is no longer a need to resort to carbon dioxide as the
    cause of the recent warming trend.

    The discovery of the real cause of the recent increase in the Earth’s
    temperature is indeed a convenient truth. It means humans are not to blame
    for the increase. It also means there is absolutely nothing we can, much
    less do, to correct the situation.

    Thomas Laprade
    Thunder Bay, Ont.
    Canada

    http://beforeitsnews.com/news/44/692/Astonishing_Science:_Sun_May_Cause_Global_Warming.html

  • snowbird

    Recent research by Henrik Svensmark and his group at the Danish National
    Space Center points to the real cause of the recent warming trend. In a
    series of experiments on the formation of clouds, these scientists have
    shown that fluctuations in the Sun's output cause the observed changes in the
    Earth's temperature.

    In the past, scientists believed the fluctuations in the Sun's output were
    too small to cause the observed amount of temperature change, hence the need
    to look for other causes like carbon dioxide. However, these new
    experiments show that fluctuations in the Sun's output are in fact large
    enough, so there is no longer a need to resort to carbon dioxide as the
    cause of the recent warming trend.

    The discovery of the real cause of the recent increase in the Earth's
    temperature is indeed a convenient truth. It means humans are not to blame
    for the increase. It also means there is absolutely nothing we can, much
    less do, to correct the situation.

    Thomas Laprade
    Thunder Bay, Ont.
    Canada

    http://beforeitsnews.com/news/44/692/Astonishin…