What Global Warming?

Fewer people see "global warming" as a serious problem, according to a new Pew study, down from 44 percent last year to 35 percent this year.

To me, part of the problem is the lousy label "global warming" versus "climate change."  Come winter you get all these comedians who, on a cold day, wonder "where's all the global warming, yuk yuk," misunderstanding that it's more about how warming in some parts of the world screw up the climates elsewhere. 

Plus given the economy, I suspect what qualifies as a "serious problem" has changed in the minds of many.

And it's not so much a partisan thing when tapping what people know about science.  The graph to the right shows that regardless of partisan attachment, seeing "global warming" as a serious problem has decreased.  Heck, even those tree-hugging Dems have gone down from 2006 to 2009.  Do they lose their membership card to the Democratic Party?

I always look to the Independents.  They don't see it as important either.  That suggests the trend is less political and more (1) a response to real-world problems of war and economic disaster or (2) a complete misunderstanding of the science.