Captain Future's Log

It's Time

With a line I was sure was plagarized from Dreaming Up Daily but damn I can't find it ("Be worried. Be very worried," which is in any case derived from a famous line in the 1986 film version of The Fly), TIME magazine's cover announces that the Climate Crisis is for real. This is not your grandfather Luce's magazine, but still, it's a big deal.

Except for the lead graphs, the major (or at least, very long) article itself is behind a wall of money, but the story is accompanied by a poll that is public. And its pretty interesting. Among the findings:

85% of Americans say global warming is probably happening.

• 88% believe global warming threatens the future, with 60% agreeing it threatens future generations a great deal.
• 49% say the issue of global warming is 'extremely' or 'very important' to them personally, up from 31% in 1998.
• When asked about the causes of rise in the world's temperatures, 49% feel it is a combination of the results of human activity and natural cycles.
• 68% believe their American government should do more to address global warming.
• 52% report that weather patterns in the county where they live have grown more unstable in the last three years.
• 70% thinks weather patterns globally have become more unstable in the last three years.
• 66% say The Smirk's policies did little or nothing to help the environment this years.
• 75% want Bush and Congress, along with American businesses, to take action to help the environment.
• 62% believe much can be done to curb global warming.
• 61% would support government mandates on lowering power plant emissions.

The only finding contrary to mainstream science is that 68% believe scientists disagree on global heating, which essentially they don't, except on details. But even swallowing this Bush mantra, more than two-thirds believe the government should do more to deal with the Climate Crisis, almost half say the issue is extremely important to them, and almost 90% believe that global heating is a real problem that will affect the future.

Finally, the Democrats have an issue they didn't know they had. In a 1998 poll, the percentages of Democrat, Republican and Independent voters who were sure global heating is happening were not far apart---all between 30 and 40 percent. Now 46% of Democrats and 45% of Independents are certain, while 26% of Republicans are.

TIME hits the newstands Monday. The poll was done by Time/ABC News & Stanford U., so it's likely to be leading ABC newscasts as well.

UPDATE: My commentary on this frontpaged at E Pluribus Media, and recommended at the European Tribune. And apparently ABC buried their own poll.