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Shy Scientists Dropped Ball on Climate Change

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 13, 2009 5:34 PM CDT

(Newser) – The Senate will soon debate the climate bill passed by the House, but “even if we do get a global-warming law for the first time in 2009, in a sense we’ve already failed,” write Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum on BuzzFlash. The issue’s 20 years old, but an unwitting coalition of reticent scientists, ideological pols, and an uninformed public prevented action “back when it would have been far easier and cheaper.”

“Blaming Republicans is certainly warranted,” Mooney and Kirshenbaum write. “It’s unequivocally clear that their politics are keeping them from accepting scientific reality.” But scientists aren’t off the hook. “Just as the public ought to move toward thinking more like scientists, scientists should also reach out more to help them get there.” To see that this doesn’t happen again, “we have to take steps now to bring these ‘two cultures,’ scientists and the public, closer together.”

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A demonstrator holds a card which reads 'The Last Lady' as he protests during a visit of G8 leaders spouses in L'Aquila, Italy. (AP Photo)

Greenpeace activists protest for protection against climate change. (AP Photo)

A flock of geese flying past a smokestack at the Jeffery Energy Center coal power plant near Emmitt, Kan. (AP Photo)

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While 84 percent of scientists believe human beings are driving global warming through their greenhouse gas emissions, just 49 percent of the public agrees. If you break that down by party affiliation, things get still more revealing. - Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum

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