Nicholas Goldberg: Americans don’t care about climate change. Here’s how to wake them up – and how to change that
In this May 6, 2015, photo, California Rep. Mike Honda, of Orange County, speaks to the media after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved legislation to renew a controversial bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions, in Washington. less In this May 6, 2015, photo, California Rep. Mike Honda, of Orange County, speaks to the media after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved legislation to renew a controversial bill to cut greenhouse… more Photo: Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Nicholas Goldberg: Americans don’t care about climate change. Here’s how to wake them up – and how to change that 1 / 3 Back to Gallery
The only time Americans’ attention wavers is during an impending storm or during an election year.
But an upcoming climate change conference – the fifth major annual gathering of nearly 200 scientists and government officials from 60 countries – could go a long way to re-energizing the debate over whether warming is real, or whether it’s a myth that’s stoked by government and corporate interests.
The meeting will be held at the Pacific Research Foundation’s Center on Global Change in Monterey, Calif., which will be attended by 2,500 scientists from all over the world. With over 50 percent more scientists and experts than at past climate summits, including those organized by the United Nations and the G-8/G-20 club of industrialized nations, the summit will be the largest gathering of the kind.
“The last time we had the world’s top scientists meet was 1989 in Kyoto,” said Bill Hare, a former senior vice president at the American Petroleum Institute who is organizing the event. “In my view, it’s a big deal.”
The summit comes at a time when the public is beginning to recognize the magnitude of the climate change crisis. A recent Gallup poll, released in collaboration with The Associated Press and the University of Maryland’s Center for Climate Change Communication, found that 67 percent of respondents said climate change is happening now.
And it’s not only Americans who show concern about the global environment. The European Union’s recent poll found that the majority of Spaniards, Italians and Greeks support the U.S. lead to cut greenhouse gas emissions. And a European scientific paper on climate change, published in February, also showed that Europeans’
