James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
Matt Nisbet once again points out that nobody in America cares about climate change. With all due respect to the Pew survey gang, I doubt things are really that bad. Consider a recent poll of Canadians that puts the environment at the top of their political priorities. As a Canadian living in America, I find that disparity hard to explain. We're just not that different.
Matt writes that "you should not be surprised that climate change fails to crack the top 20 most followed issues or the top 20 most covered topics of 2007." Canuck pollster Angus Reid, commenting on the declining popularity of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, notes that
"the environment remains the most important issue in this country ... and this is an issue the Harperites haven't understood.... Twenty-six per cent of Canadians said the environment is their number one concern, the highest-ranked issue for voters in the poll.Yes, we're comparing apples and oranges here. But they're both fruit and hard to reconcile. Either the Pew survey, which tracked "most followed news stories" doesn't accurately reflect what Americans are really thinking about, or the Angus Reid poll is one of those 20th time-out-of-20 results that bears no relation to reality. I will pick the former. Perhaps editors simply aren't providing the kind of coverage their audiences and readers want.
I, for one, was disappointed with the relatively light attention afforded the Bali talks on climate change this month, considering how much fodder there was for conflict-driven journalism. I suspect the editors and news directors are global-warminged out. It's been a long year of IPCC reports and Al Gore-watching, after all.
At the same time, however, it is important to remember that most Canadians are highly unlikely to make climate change or any other environmental issue a deciding factor in the next election, whenever that is. Some Canadians may recall that, early in Canada's 1988 election campaign, after a summer of record-breaking heat and drought, Jim Hansen's shocking testimony on climate change to the US Congress, and hundreds of dead dolphins washing up on beaches everywhere, it looked like the New Democratic Party, the only ones to focus on green themes, were poised to make incredible electoral gains. But that support evaporated as soon as the two main establishment parties decided to make Free Trade the Big Issue. And the sheep were led to the slaughter yet again.
But it is remarkable that environmental concerns would top anyone's current worry list. A small sliver of hope.
Email this entry to a friend
View the Technorati Link Cosmos for this entry
Comments
If not the highest concern, it was one of the highest in the recent Australian elections, and the first thing the new PM did was ratify Kyoto.
Posted by: John S. Wilkins | December 21, 2007 9:52 AM
The effects and outcomes of climate change are becoming more more obvious now and people are getting an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of their stomach - fear is slowly setting in.
This is starting to have an effect on politics.
Posted by: paul m | December 21, 2007 4:00 PM
CBC radio's Jeff Davies, a reporter on provincial politics in British Columbia, today aired his list of top ten BC news stories for 2007. Number one was climate change. And that's in a province rich with sensational scandals.
Posted by: Liz | December 21, 2007 11:58 PM
You hit the nail on the head with the phrase, "global warming'ed out." Both in print and electronic media.
I have a friend trying to get a very good global warming book published -- the word from literary agents is that "global warming is done." Similarly, two months ago I was at a party of filmmakers in which one person said, "It's official, film distributors are saying 'no more global warming films'."
A lot of very dull and boring global warming media has been produced, and unfortunately, the poster child for the entire movement is a fat, dull and boring nice guy who was supposed to be president. The topic may not be that dry to the fans of global warming who can't get enough of it and assume the rest of the general public shares their appetite for knowledge. But its certainly dull and boring enough for all these pathways of mass communication to be now shut down on the subject.
Its a shame that what's probably the most important problem ever facing the planet has been turned into little more than tedium. But ... it has.
Posted by: Randy Olson | December 22, 2007 5:25 PM
1- Is "Canuck" considered a pejorative? I have travelled and have heard such uttered by by unsavoury reprobates in such fashion.
2- Have we a convenient term for citizens of The United States (of America)? It is logically confusing to read after writers who speak of "Mexicans", "Americans", and "Canadians" in an exposition about national character. We are all "Americans" on this continent by a Vespucci definition. Or "Columbians" by a Cristoferian definition.
3-May we consider a commonwealth of ideas on our North American problems with survival? Northern European & Asian delegates welcome.
Posted by: Skeptic8 | December 23, 2007 5:13 PM