Why are the americans in denial of the global warming?

Question

When most of the europeans acknowledge that human actions have caused this climate change and global warming, the americans try to dismiss this idea and treat it as untrue or suspecious.

Answer 1

You seem to not recognize that Europe hates & fears the United States.  

350 W/m2 (nature) vs. 1.6 W/m2 (human). Humans don't control the climate.

Answer 2

The American government has brainwashed the public. George Bush has gotten even more wealthy from big oil and wouldn't do anything to wreck his relationship with them.Although some Americans with brains might not be in denial but they sure won't give up their SUV.

Answer 3

As you can see from the answers, the denialists are incapable of separating politics from science. They see everything involved with this issue as a left wing conspiracy. Follow the money. The people who have the most to lose are the people most likely to be vocal denialists.  

Answer 4

Why are you stereotyping? "The" Americans? LOL! I think you need to meet some more Americans. Yes, some deny global warming. But the majority of us know all about it. Educating people on Global warming is a good and noble thing to do. Stereotyping, however, does not help any.  

Answer 5

I know what you mean. it is the Republican political party that like to spread that.  They like to hide their head in the sand because they are capitalists and are more concerned about their precious money than the Earth.

Answer 6

i am not being skeptical about global warming. What i am being skeptical about is the people that are telling me about global warming. because the thing with global warming is that it is much much much more than a scientific term. it is a political term. for instance, Al Gore. He has given the speech and video called the inconvenient truth. he probably has certain things to back his information up about. but the problem has already faced us twice. He said that in the last fifty years the global tempurature is getting hotter becuase of us. Humans. problem three. here is the problems.

Al Gore is a crooked polititcian. not a scientist. he wants money. he got it from these speeches. So... makes me think he just wants it for the money, huh? and he is a powerful voice in this act. you make the decision.

problem two, the things Al Gore and other scientists are using to back these statements up are not legitament in my book. like how the earth has been heating up since the 1750's,(problem three coming up) when coal was introduced to "man" and fossil fuels were "spewn" into the atmosphere. they didnt have a good way at all of testing the overall GLOBAL tempurature of the earth back in the 1750's! and in the last 100-50 years or so we have been able to detect that. and it scares us what we see. but what we see is earth at what i think is a normal cycle between hot and cold. like the seasons.

and problem three is that global warming is supposed to be man made and THAT is what im sceptical about. If you look at the hard untwisted numbers, it will show you that earth's man made C02 is very little compared to earth's itself. Like a Volcano. tons of c02 gas spread into the air, more than what a city of about 500,000 people put out in 5 years! i know! i live in Boise Idaho and ive looked at the stats! until they show that it truly is my car and not some fat guy farting thats caused by global warming, i am gonna continue to drive it. until i see the CHEMICAL PROCESS of C02 hitting the Atmosphere, and something breaks down, im gonna continue to drive my half on gas guzzlin pickup for goin campin in the mountains.

Answer 7

Actually, despite the strong denial presence in this forum and the incredibly ignorant and denialist attitude of the US government, the majority of Americans actually believe in AGW.

Not as high a percentage as many places in the world, to be true, especially not as high as Europe but a majority nevertheless.

YA is not representative of the USA as a whole and this forum seems to be a honeypot for the AGW scepticflies...

The US is the nation most responsible for the present amount of pollution and AGW. It is also, by a long shot, still the world's worst per capita contributor to greenhouse gases, has the worst energy efficiency (measured by watts-per $ of GDP) of all OECD countries and the worst oil & car dependency anywhere.

This means that for the USA to go 'green' (i.e. energy efficient = more secure, cleaner lifestyles, better standard of living, happier, healthier, longer lives, more homeland security, etc, etc) they are the ones who will have to change the most.

This, in turn, means:

1) Greater fear and resistance to change

2) Greater vested interests (especially political & industrial) to resist change

Both of these are easiest to do if you deny there is a problem in the first place.

And yet, despite both motive and pressure, 80% of Americans believe that action needs to be taken to combat climate change - something to be optimistic about!

Answer 8

The current administration in power is controlled by fundamentalist Christians who actually believe that the Earth was created less than 10,000 years ago.  Therefore, all data, and the science it is based on, which describes Earth's historic climate changes compared to recent human history is disbelieved.

If global climate change theory is correct, then the Bible can't be taken as literal fact.  In any case, they believe that God is in complete control and He will protect those who "believe".

Frightening, isn't it?

Answer 9

Reread your question, you didn't use any qualifying words. You wrote "The Americans" both times you used the word American.  

Answer 10

It appears to be so because our political leader is an idiot who makes his decisions by praying to Jesus instead of appraising valid scientific fact. There are a lot of people and scientists here working to help spark the "green" movement and make it stronger in America.

Answer 11

Thats what I think too! Like when you ask some1 bout global warming they go all questiony about it. And they research sooo much when most of the world knows its true.

Answer 12

im american i have not denied global warming.  

Answer 13

A lot of Americans rather trust in their God than in science.

And their feelings come from the TV,movies and what they read in the papers ,

so what ever is proclaimed there ,that is what many  base their opinions on

and the popular trend  right now is total skepticism.

At least so it appears judging by what is said on the net.

And very few Americans care for animals or Nature

they are more into hunting and developing

this is usual with religious countries.

You can see that as well in Europe if you compare people attitudes from Northern Europe ,to the religious South where Nature is pounded and animals are abused

Answer 14

Really? Where did u get the info from because ur mistaking. We do realize about global warming and we are doing our part to go green. I live in nyc and this year we have been trying to go green. I mean its everywhere now...So i think u need to get better sources for ur info

First off dont talk for all Americans..

Your very typical and i am very use to people being jealous of my country..

I feel bad for ppl like u who dont have the opportunitys americans have..

Answer 15

I would suggest you do some reading and research 'outside' the liberal rant about global warming. Let me see, I can believe Al Gore and his Hollywood entourage, or I can believe a professor such as Lindzer(atmospheric science/climatologist)at MIT..plus a legion of other learned professors who recognize this as more of a political thing as opposed to anything else.......  wow, that's a tough one! I'll have to side with science on this one! Sorry.**real science,not junk science--you DO know the difference??

Answer 16

of course.....and why do Europeans all have bad teeth?

come on boss, hate Americans if you want, but don't be ignorant enough to actually believe the things you say.

as for your update, "most" is still an asinine thing to say

and in America, unfortunately everything is a political issue

there isn't anything us non-politicians can do about that.

so to answer your question:

you're way off base

Answer 17

I have asked myself the same question so many times! I think most Americans ARE in denial - I see it all the time! I am an American and am ashamed of my govrnment and fellow citizens. I know there are lots of people who want to be "green" it's just that corprate America are the ones in charge here not Bush - he's just a man. So as long as people don't want to make true sacrifices (a word most American don't even know the definition of, if they did they would get the whole Jesus thing) then a handful of caring people will be rowing this boat alone and making very little progress.

Also the fear of economic downturn scares the heck out of the fat and sassy Americans that have been living in the most advanced and properous country in the world for so long they now take it for granted and consider it their "right" to take and not give back - so SAD!

It's really too bad our government felt the need to kill off the Native American who were living in harmony with nature in this country for hundreds of years - we could have learned so much from them.

For all of you who are not in denial, Please don't give up! For those of you in power, stop and ask yourself if what you do for a living is harming our planet - if it is take a new direction - there is plenty of money to be made in alternative energy, sure you might have a setback but haven't you been riding the high horse for a long time? Give it a rest for the sake of our environment! Some of my most interesting and exciting times of my life were when I was surviving on peanut butter sandwiches and rice and living in my van down by the river- everyone should try it at least once!

And for those who feel the need to pray, please Don't Stop - just don't forget to listen for an answer to your prayers, Listening is probably one thing most overlooked and most needed!

Im still blown away that this stuff isn't obvious to more people.

I heard something that was a quote from the 60's that seemed appropriate now: HANG YOUR FEARS AT THE DOOR AND STEP INTO THE FUTURE!

Answer 18

You claim to be against all religions and yet your words show that you are a faithful member of one of the most oppressive and tyrannical religions in the world outside of Islam. Search for a book called Limits to Growth published by a group called the club of Rome. This book is the bible of the New Left climate change religion that has sworn on it to reduce the worlds population to what it was in 1800 over the next 50 years. Are you going to volunteer for the headsman’s axe or do you consider yourself to be one of the valued intelligencia who will then rule the world in comfort and luxury.

Answer 19

For decades, environmentalism has been the Left's best excuse for increasing government control over our actions in ways both large and small. It's for Mother Earth! It's for the children! It's for the whales!

But until now, the doomsday-scenario environmental scares they've trumped up haven't been large enough to give the sinister prize they want most of all: total control of American politics, economic activity, and even individual behavior.

With global warming, however, greenhouse gasbags can argue that auto emissions in Ohio threaten people in Paris, and that only global government can tackle such problems.

National sovereignty? Democracy?

Forget it: global warming has now brought the Left closer to global government, statism, and the eradication of individual rights than it has ever been before.

Answer 20

I think more and more (in fact most) Americans do acknowledge climate change... (I prefer not to call it global warming... after all, a general warming of the atmosphere could cause all sorts of effects, and certain parts of the world could actually get colder).

The Americans that don't acknowledge it, or the ones that dismiss it are usually those who have the power... and as these are the only americans we usually see in Europe, it's easy to brand the whole country as globaly irresponsible, when this isn't in fact the case.

I think the general feeling within those halls of power is "technology will save us"... and perhaps it has a role to play (in fact I'd say it has more of a role to play than ever), but it's not going to save anything unless we all change habbits and lifestyles too...

I can assure though that not all Americans are so "tech dependant"... My father -in-law for example works for a company as a lighting engineer and spends his days making anything that lights up more enegry efficient... small steps maybe, but lots of people making sush steps soon add up...

Answer 21

Well, for starters, you generalize as if all or the vast majority don't subscribe to the theory, but that's not true.  There are just more here than in places such as Europe that are skeptical.  I'll be the first to tell you, Americans are probably more likely to question the entire movement behind global warming and what it stands for.  We have questioned politcal movements since the inception of the country and we continue to do so because that's exactly what this is, a political movement.  We raise an eyebrow any time the government and media are so gung-ho about jumping on a movement because that generally means they want to assert more control, raise taxes or both.  And they have done just that to "justify and fix" global warming.  Look at California.  The state senate was literally discussing whether they would enact a thermostat regulator controlled by the government.  They would have a device in the home of a private citizen controlling how much energy they would be allowed to use.  That sounds more like communism.  And then there's the discussion of cap and trade and carbon credits.  So somehow paying more for what we're already doing now is going to correct global warming?  No, it's a fundraiser.  That's why people are so opposed to adhering to policies.  Not to mention, the science is far from settled despite what you hear on television.  There is nothing definitive about the entire subject.  Scientists 10 years ago were preaching the sky is falling and we're all doomed.  And now look.  There hasn't been any warming since 2001.  Some glaciers are melting, but and equal amount are expanding.  Warming has occurred before in the past, and in terms of the earth's cycles, the last time we warmed was not long ago, about 800 years.  Point being, there are so many things that aren't discussed when you hear that the planet is in peril because of the evil carbon consumers, that you begin to believe it because you're only being fed what they want you to see.  Do some research and you'll see it's more likely a naturally occurring phenomenon than it is to do with human consumption.

Answer 22

Bush dismissed Global Warming as theory. Bush is in denial as well as some Americans. But a vast majority believe it as fact and some would like to hold Bush accountable for his denial. Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his work concerning climate change is an American. So when you attack Americans for being in denial, remember that it was an American who won and not one of another nationality.