Heliogenic Climate Change

“Many Americans are skeptical about global warming and that makes it harder to get a bill through Congress.  …

Such views, widespread in the U.S. heartland, drive conservative opposition to President Barack Obama’s bid to get a bill through Congress that would cap U.S. emissions of the greenhouse gases linked [by alarmists] to climate change.

“It’s a very different debate in Europe, where there is no discussion about whether climate change is occurring. But in the United States it is about whether it exists [wrong; it's about causation, not existence],” said John Wright of pollster Ipsos.

It is a skepticism that … has been linked to the influence of U.S. talk radio, the “oil lobby”, an enduring love affair with cars, and a history founded on limiting the role of government.  ..

“In other countries academics hold a more revered position … And so some of these Europeans look at America and say there is all this evidence, why don’t you believe? …”, said Michael Lindsay, a political sociologist at Rice University in Houston.

In interviews with Americans across the country, global warming is often seen as exaggerated, part of a plot to sabotage the U.S. economy or an intrusion in people’s lives.  …

This is also a theme driven home daily by conservative commentators in the media and by some high-profile talk-radio hosts who say that climate change is a hoax.  …

Some environmentalists blame the powerful U.S. oil lobby.

“I don’t think it’s that Americans are confused about global warming, it’s that they’re being confused,” said the incoming executive director of conservation group Sierra Club, Michael Brune, who blames big spending by oil, coal and other energy industries.”  “U.S. stands out for climate-change skepticism“