Lovely. The poll is a blunt instrument to be sure, but let's hope public disaffection with the climate debate and resulting distrust of "scientists on the environment" doesn't bleed into other areas, like biodiversity, deforestation, transboundary pollution, etc. Worth watching, anyway.
Rich -- Richard L. Wallace, Ph.D. Associate Professor Environmental Studies Program Ursinus College P.O. Box 1000 Collegeville, PA 19426 (610) 409-3730 (610) 409-3660 fax rwall...@ursinus.edu From: owner-gep...@listserve1.allegheny.edu [mailto:owner-gep...@listserve1.allegheny.edu] On Behalf Of Wil Burns Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 12:48 PM To: envlawprofess...@lists.uoregon.edu; 'Global Environmental Politics Education ListServe' Subject: Climategate Impacts Ooops... scientists getting hit...a new Washington Post-ABC News poll after "climategate." Scientists "significantly" losing credibility with the public: "Scientists themselves also come in for more negative assessments in the poll, with four in 10 Americans now saying that they place little or no trust in what scientists have to say about the environment. That's up significantly in recent years. About 58 percent of Republicans now put little or no faith in scientists on the subject, double the number saying so in April 2007. Over this time frame, distrust among independents bumped up from 24 to 40 percent, while Democrats changed only marginally. Among seniors, the number of skeptics more than doubled, to 51 percent." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/18/AR200912 1800002.html Dr. Wil Burns, Editor in Chief Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy 1702 Arlington Blvd. El Cerrito, CA 94530 USA Ph: 650.281.9126 Fax: 510.779.5361 ji...@internationalwildlifelaw.org <mailto:ji...@internationalwildlifelaw.org> http://www.jiwlp.com <http://www.jiwlp.com/> SSRN site (selected publications): http://ssrn.com/author=240348 Skype ID: Wil.Burns
