(Cross-posted from SD Rostra).
By Bradley J. Fikes
From the New York Times, via Climate Depot:
“Don’t mention global warming,” warned Nancy Jackson, chairwoman of the Climate and Energy Project, a small nonprofit group that aims to get people to rein in the fossil fuel emissions that contribute to climate change. “And don’t mention Al Gore. People out here just hate him.”
Focus instead on the quaint religious beliefs and nationalistic values of the natives, the article states:
If the heartland is to seriously reduce its dependence on coal and oil, Ms. Jackson and others decided, the issues must be separated. So the project ran an experiment to see if by focusing on thrift, patriotism, spiritual conviction and economic prosperity, it could rally residents of six Kansas towns to take meaningful steps to conserve energy and consider renewable fuels.
And above all, don’t mention the C-word or the G-word, says the New York Times, dripping with condescension for the ignorant indigenous residents.
Only 48 percent of people in the Midwest agree with the statement that there is “solid evidence that the average temperature on earth has been getting warmer,” a poll conducted in the fall of 2009 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed — far fewer than in other regions of the country.
The Jacksons already knew firsthand that such skepticism was not just broad, but also deep. Like opposition to abortion or affirmations of religious faith, they felt, it was becoming a cultural marker that helped some Kansans define themselves.
Yes, to the all-knowing East Coast elites at the New York Times, and those transplants in the unlettered wilderness of the Midwest, differences of opinions on these issues or “affirmations of religious faith” can’t be the result of informed views, just a “cultural marker” to help those Kansas morons deal with the world.
Nevertheless, Ms. Jackson felt so strongly that this opposition could be overcome that she left a job as development director at the University of Kansas in Lawrence to start the Climate and Energy Project with a one-time grant from the Land Institute. (The project is now independent.)
It’s a good thing for Ms. Jackson that those ignorant Bible-thumping Kansas rednecks don’t know how to read, or they’d be very angry.
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(DISCLAIMER: This is my opinion, and not necessarily that of my employer, the North County Times).
The issue isn’t so much whether the earth is warming NOW. The Little Ice Age ended 150 years ago. It is whether it is getting warmer than the historical (and prehistorical) record and is non-cyclic. I think the warming ended in 1995 but would accept evidence to the contrary. I just don’t believe it is human caused and CO2 caused. Even human caused is arguable because the development of agriculture may have altered the ice age cycle. The problem for the left is that it was warmer in 1200 during the Medieval Warm Period and they can’t explain it.
You might include this as well.