(http://www.csmonitor.com/)
from the April 20, 2007 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0420/p02s01-wogi.html
This Earth Day, a focus on Earth's warming
Public awareness about climate change is growing; 83 percent of Americans
now call it a 'serious' problem.
By _Brad Knickerbocker_
(http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=C2F2E1E4A0CBEEE9E3EBE5F2E2EFE3EBE5F2&url=/2007/0420/p02s01-wogi.html)
| Staff
writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Ashland, Ore
For years, Earth Day celebrants have hugged trees, dressed up as their
favorite endangered species, and extolled the virtues of compost and organic
gardening.
This year, April 22, the annual day to tout personal and community
greenness, has a new emphasis for many people: global warming and its
predicted
effects on Mother Earth.
Around the country and around the world, a batch of recent opinion surveys
show swelling public interest in and concern about climate change.
There is "a significant shift in public attitudes toward the environment and
global warming [with] fully 83 percent of Americans now saying global
warming is a 'serious' problem, up from 70 percent in 2004," reports the Yale
Center for Environmental Law and Policy.
"The last six months have been the most rapid period of change in public
awareness and attitudes on climate change that I've ever seen," says William
Moomaw, a Tufts University climate expert and coauthor of the recent report by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN-sponsored group of
scientists.
Demand for climate-change briefings he's delivered for the past five years
have jumped in the past year, says Dr. Moomaw. Audiences who were once polite
are now actively engaged.
Now, after talks he regularly finds himself surrounded by mobs of
questioners eager to learn more.
One of those who has questions about climate change and its possible impact
on local weather patterns is Suzy Carpenter, a fourth-generation Arizonan who
lives in Mesa. She's noticed a change in what she calls the summer monsoon
season there.
"When I was little it would pour buckets every single night, and it was that
way through the summers until I was probably in my mid-20s," says Ms.
Carpenter, speaking of the 1970s. "Now it's cycled down to where we get three
or
four storms per summer, and we're always short on rainfall now."
Why all the heightened interest in global warming?
Several reasons: Media interest (splashy cover stories in The Atlantic M
onthly, Newsweek, and Vanity Fair magazines); Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient
Truth"; Democrats now controlling Congress and holding highly publicized
hearings, plus a steady drumbeat of reports from the IPCC; retired military
officers
worried about the national security implications of climate change; and
other government and academic sources.
Meanwhile, some high-profile politicians, including Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger (R) of California, have been playing up the issue. Last
September, Mr.
Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act, which aims to reduce
greenhouse-gas emissions in the state 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by
2050 –
the most stringent guidelines in the country.
The US Supreme Court has weighed in on climate change. On April 2 it ruled
that the US Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate
carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
For some people, a particular event has captured their attention on the
effects of climate change. Chela Sullivan in Phoenix was energized when she
recently saw Al Gore give his Power- Point presentation in a packed hall at
Arizona State University. But like a lot of young Americans, she had already
started doing her bit to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
She leaves her yellow VW bug at home and carpools as much as possible. She
installed energy-saving lightbulbs and appliances in her condo and doesn't use
the clothes dryer. "If I have to make adjustments in my life – like walking
more and spending less on gas – I will, because I think it's imperative," she
says.
More and more, Americans are adopting that attitude. According to the recent
Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy poll, 81 percent of those
surveyed agree that, "It is my responsibility to help reduce the impacts of
global
warming." Sixty-three percent agreed that "our country is in as much danger
from environmental hazards such as air pollution and global warming as it is
from terrorists."
"Global warming used to be such an amorphous concept," says Melissa Goodall,
associate director of the Yale Center. "Now, it's a lot more tangible for
people."
Local communities are taking up the cause as well, which both leads and
follows public opinion. Two years ago, Seattle mayor Greg Nickels challenged
his
fellow mayors to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets for US
greenhouse-gas emissions – a 7 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2012. As
of this
week, 435 mayors have signed up.
And it's not just adults educating themselves about climate change and its
implications.
Weekly Reader Research recently surveyed 1,657 students between ages 6 and
18 from schools around the country. The organization found that 64 percent of
America's youth have discussed the environment and global warming in class,
and a majority (especially girls) expressed concern.
Still, most people are not freaking out over the prospect of climate change,
the Gallup polling organization finds.
"While Americans say they are worried about global warming, they also
believe the worst manifestations of the problem are a long way off," writes
Lydia
Saad of the Gallup News Service in her analysis of a poll taken last month.
Gallup asked Americans how worried they are about seven weather events tied
to climate change including hurricanes, droughts, rising ocean levels,
tropical diseases, and species extinction.
"Generally speaking, not much more than one-third of Americans are 'very
worried' about any of the seven effects of global warming measured in the
survey," says Ms. Saad. "However, a solid majority are at least 'somewhat
worried'
about nearly all of them."
At the same time, Gallup finds, Americans by a wide margin – 58 percent to
34 percent – think "the government should put a higher priority on protecting
the environment than on increasing energy production." Even though 92 percent
think the energy situation in the United States is "serious" (of whom 37
percent say "very serious"), those surveyed favor energy conservation over
production by 64-26 percent.
"A lot more people seem willing to go the extra mile, spending a few dollars
to help the environment," says Steve Haskins, a Williamstown, Mass., home
builder, who's seen a rapid increase in the numbers of requests for
sustainable
building practices. "Concern about climate is driving it. But it's also cost
of energy and cost to heat the house."
Corporate boardrooms are getting the message, too. "There's been a dramatic
shift in the business community's attitude toward the environment," says Dan
Esty, director of the Yale Center. "Rather than seeing environmental issues
as a set of costs to bear, regulation to follow, and risks to manage,
companies have begun to focus on the upside, recognizing that society's desire
for
action on climate change, in particular, will create a huge demand for
reducing
carbon-content products."
• Mark Clayton in Boston and Faye Bowers in Phoenix contributed to this
report.
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