Irony is so much sweeter when its victims have slathered their
false
assertions with syrupy
arrogance and
mocking mix-ins.
Trouble is, the excess almost always causes a tummy ache.
Not to mention
brain freeze, which Al Gore, NASA’s James Hansen, and the
rest of the environmentalist gorgers now suffer when pairing
“global” and “warming.” The New York Times on Sunday
reported that a polling firm has learned that the word combo
– trumpeted in a multiyear mass media blitz – is now nowhere near
as popular as “peanut butter and jelly,” or even “peas and
carrots:”
The problem with global warming, some environmentalists
believe, is “global warming.”
The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired
liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes,
according to extensive polling and focus group sessions
conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing
and messaging firm in Washington.
And we thought global warming-inspired visions of
granola-munching, Birkenstock-clad, organic-farming,
tree-hugging, smelling-up-the-commune hippies were limited to us
conservative types. How wrong we were – now even real people
surveyed by environmental consultants believe the same thing!
That doesn’t mean the eco-activists served by ecoAmerica haven’t
become smarter and stronger. Despite their failure to capture the
minds and hearts of average Americans with their pro-green
propaganda, they kicked so much sand in the faces of corporate
cowards like
Enron, GE
and BP that those
bag-of-bones executives believed environmentalism went
mainstream. These weaklings went off and bulked up their eco-cred
so the beach girls would call them wimps no
more. Now they use their newfound muscle to browbeat exemptions
and favors for themselves in
global warming legislation pushed by Democratic
water-carriers.
But impressing the bubbleheads on the beach is not the same as
wooing those in flyover country. The ecoAmerica report is only
the most recent discovery. Last month Rasmussen
reported that only one-third of voters now believe humans
cause global warming, while nearly half (48 percent) believe it
is due to long-term planetary trends. This
continued a trend noticed in January by Rasmussen on the
issue. Meanwhile the venerable pollster
in February found also that 54 percent of voters believe the
media excessively hypes the dangers posed by global warming.
But that’s not all, no that’s not all, as
I cited in March for American Spectator:
Pew also found in January that of 20 policy issues it asked
people to rank in importance, global warming fell last. In
addition, a poll by the National Center for Public Policy
Research last summer found an overwhelming majority of
Americans do not want to spend any more on gasoline or
electricity to address global warming, as is proposed under the
Lieberman/Warner bill.
And finally, this week Gallup found a record-high 41 percent
believe the media exaggerates the threat of global warming.
“This represents the highest level of public skepticism about
mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a
decade of Gallup polling on the subject,” the polling firm
reported.
As you can see, Al Gore, his sycophants, and his multi-million-dollar nonprofit
mafia are tethered to the
phrase that started it all – “global warming” – which they no
longer warm to.
It worked so well for them in their heyday. They received
media love
every time NASA’s James Hansen
exposed his rump for their smoochin’. And proponents
can credit a
million megatons of award
hardware thanks to “global warming,” including Oscars, a
Grammy, and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Now it’s a boat anchor. According to ecoAmerica, instead of
messaging with “global warming,” alarmists would be better off
using terms like “our deteriorating atmosphere” and “climate
change.” The latter phrase has been utilized almost exclusively
by the environoiacs and their journalist
template-followers the last couple of years, since global
warming
isn’t.
But it’s hard to break from their roots. The crisis-promoters so
effectively rat-a-tatted the panic of melting icebergs, homeless
polar bears, and a million more Katrinas that “global warming”
dangers – now understood to be a lie – is embedded in the
perceptions of middle Americans. Gore, Hansen and company own it.
They loved it when the ship set sail, but scurry like the
proverbial rats now that the truth (that is,
no warming in a dozen years) has run their cause aground.
And without “global warming,” they lose their justification for
the
massive energy taxes they wanted that was supposed to combat
it. Even many who they thought were their allies
can’t buy into it (PDF).
May the trophies be a nice consolation prize.
