"SwimJim" wrote in message
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"Alastair McDonald" k wrote
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"SwimJim" wrote in message
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I think he was right about the general public, but wrong to confine it to
the US. [remainder of paragraph deleted]

My problem with the comment was that it really was about viewpoint of
the political party in power, and because of that it denigrated the
awareness of approximately 50% of the country (give or take a few
percentage points). While there are sectors of the general public
that are out of touch with reality on this, there are also sectors of
the general public that are acutely attuned to it.

I think we agree. You are saying don't judge all Americans by the policies
of the President. I am saying don't judge all British people by the
policies of our Prime Minister. There are a lot of people here in
Britain who do not see GW as a bigger threat than international
terrorism. In fact many are convinced that CO2 is not causing GW,
and that it is just a natural phenomnon which will cure itself.
In both countries we are split 50/50 right and left, You have a right
wing government we have a left wing one. But to get whole
hearted action we need to persuade the 50% right wingers that
they are wrong. They are not the type of people who change their
minds!

Gas prices being where they're going, all of sudden the general public
is going to have to start paying attention.

It is optimism that is going to destroy us. Even Keeling is optimistic,
and so he loses the power of his arguments. The Greenland ice
sheet is now doomed, (unless we greatly reduce the amount of
CO2 in the atmosphere) but still we go on hoping it is not true, or
won't happen in our life time. When we come to our senses, if we
ever do, it will be too late :-(.

Pessimism, on the other hand, can be perceived as doomsaying (or sold
as such by those with alternate views).

That is one reason that it is such a difficult message to sell. People are
convinced by emotion, not logic. The answer is to scare people, as was
proposed by Stephen Schneider, but it seems that the current group
of scientists don't have the guts for that!

I propose to form the Society of the Steaming Amphibians (to avoid a
term that can be used in a derogatory fashion toward a particular
nation's citizens). The Society of the Steaming Amphibians will be
formed of those who know that we're in a pot of water that's getting
warmer, and we want to figure out a way to jump out before it's too
late.

Are we going to hop out of the pan, or just be hopping mad?


Want to be a charter member?

I am certainly in favour of the aims, but I am not sure about the name. It
doen't really jump out at you, does it ;-?

Cheers, Alastair.