Where is public opinion on global warming?

• A poll from last summer
  found that the vast majority of Americans opposed Lieberman/Warner and
  would not be willing to pay higher prices for electricity or gasoline
  to combat global warming.
• Pew found in January that of 20 policy issues it asked people to place in order of importance, global warming ranked last.
• A series of recent Rasmussen polls determined: that more respondents believed global warming was due to planetary trends than by human causes; that voters are evenly divided
  over whether immediate action on global warming is necessary; that 46
  percent believe giving government greater control over the economy to
  fight global warming will be bad for America; and that a majority (54
  percent) believe the media exaggerates the dangers of global warming.
• 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.

So what does this say after 20+ years of irresponsible media
exaggeration of the issue? It tells me a few things: that there is no
such thing as a dominant ?mainstream media? any more that captivates
the news-consuming public. That while it?s nice to have one of these
news outlets do your story, it?s not vital, and it?s not necessary to
agonize over whether they do so or not. That these historically
well-known news outlets are not only losing readership and revenues
because of advertising losses, but because of credibility loss and
disconnect with their communities. News consumers are smarter these
days and know how to detect biased reporting, and they are not buying
the product any more. With the speed and efficiency of the Web, it
almost doesn?t matter any more where your information gets published;
it?s that it does get published, gets found by a few key constituents,
and gets launched from there. Can anyone purchase a Sunday paper in any
city these days and honestly say it was worth the money?

Yet too many in political activism, public relations, and business
believe that if your message hasn?t penetrated these media dinosaurs,
then you?ve failed. Well, as the global warming issue illustrates, the
skeptics are at least tied with the alarmists if they are not outright
winning, despite the lack of respect and attention from the dying news
giants. The polls show it clearly. So if the big businesses (you know
who you are) who are in bed with the cap-and-taxers in big government
and big environmentalism only so they can reap benefits for themselves,
while passing costs to consumers and electricity users, you risk a
backlash from those who will pay the bill. You are believing the wrong
messengers and the evidence is clear.

Cross-posted at Cooler Heads Coalition.