On the Public and Climate Change, It's Not the Heat or the Cold, It's the Curve
Scott Bittle
Jul 9, 2010
This week's triple-digit heat wave has raised both temperatures and hopes among climate activists that this can move public opinion about global warming – just as climate skeptics grasped onto last winter's "snowpocalypse" as a talking point. From our point of view, what policymakers and activists really need is a better reading on the public, not a better reading on the thermometer.
The opinion writers continue to debate whether the country needs more economic stimulus or more budget-cutting – this "opinionator" faceoff in the New York Times is the latest contribution. But the more the commentators talk, the more confusing this may become for the rest of us.