FOR THE SAME REASON WE'RE IGNORANT OF UNICORN BIOLOGY?:

Why Are Americans So Ill-Informed on the Topic of Climate Change?: Scientists and journalists debate why Americans still resist the consensus among research organizations that humans are warming the globe (Robin Lloyd, February 23, 2011, Scientific American)

The frustration revealed itself during a handful of sessions at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., this past weekend, and it came to a peak during a Friday session, “Science without borders and media unbounded.”

Near the session’s conclusion, Massachusetts Institute of Technology climate scientist Kerry Emanuel asked a panel of journalists why the media continues to cover anthropogenic climate change as a controversy or debate, when in fact it is a consensus among such organizations as the American Geophysical Union, American Institute of Physics, American Chemical Society, American Meteorological Association, National Research Council and the national academies of more than two dozen countries.

"You haven't persuaded the public," replied Elizabeth Shogren of National Public Radio. Emanuel immediately countered, smiling and pointing at Shogren, "No, YOU haven't." Scattered applause followed in the audience of mostly scientists, with one heckler saying aloud, "That's right. Kerry said it."

They never managed to convince us unwashed masses of the undeniable truth of their other theories either--like Darwinism, Marxism and Freudianism. We thereby avoided much damage to our society.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 23, 2011 7:34 AM