Thursday, March 15, 2012

Study says young adults not as concerned about environmental issues as past generations- AP

CHICAGO — They have a reputation for being environmentally minded do-gooders. But an academic analysis of surveys spanning more than 40 years has found that today’s young Americans are less interested in the environment and in conserving resources — and often less civic-minded overall — than their elders were when they were young.

...Steepest of all was a steady decline in concern about the environment, and taking personal action to save it.

...Mark Potosnak, an environmental science professor at DePaul University in Chicago, has noticed an increase in skepticism — or confusion — about climate change among his students as the national debate has heightened

...— 5 to 10 percent “committed environmentalists”

— 5 percent “anti-environment” (These are the students who purposely avoid putting their trash in campus recycling bins, for instance.)

— 85 to 90 percent “open to protecting the environment and natural resources, but not leaders and not interested in being seriously inconvenienced or paying a cost to do so”

Britain's Heritage In Danger From Wind Farms Warns National Trust

Heritage sites around the country will be ruined by wind farmsafter 300ft turbines were given the go ahead near one of England's most important historic ruins, the National Trust warned yesterday.

How Fear Affects Policy

Fear is a strong motivating factor, having evolved over millennia as we have protected ourselves against predators. Fear supports self-preservation by making us risk-averse and cautious. But such a deep, visceral, evolved emotion does not always serve our long-term objectives of thriving; it leads to maximin outcomes, and it is often mismatched to the actual threats to our self-preservation. As our environments change around us, we can fear things we shouldn’t and may not fear things that we should; we overthink everything and tend toward a “precautionary principle” approach, making us risk-averse and cautious.

InvestigateDaily – Australian climate change reports ‘hysterical’

David Karoly, Matthew England and Will Steffen are probably Australia’s three most hysterical climate alarmists. They have all featured regularly in these pages, and Will Steffen is one of the Labor government’s climate advisers.

And as we all know, any weather event, floods, drought, more cyclones, fewer cyclones, excessive heat, excessive cold, you name it, can be attributed to climate change. As has been said so many times, it is an unfalsifiable hypothesis – no event can disprove it – and therefore falls into the realm of pseudoscience. Bummer.

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