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POLLSTERS TOLD
“Consumers tell pollsters they are worried about global warming,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald, “but that’s not translating into climate-friendly spending.” Perhaps those pollsters should refine their questions. Meanwhile, in the world of actual spending:
Sales of family cars in the large passenger vehicle segment grew an encouraging 4.7% last month compared to March 2006 ...
Sales in the pick-up/cab-chassis 4x4 segment grew by 4,614 or 30.0% in the first quarter.
There’s little sign of climate-friendly voting, though, or climate-friendly TV viewing.
Speaking of flying, a poll this week found that one in five Australians - Rudd obviously not among them - are considering abandoning air travel because of its impact on global warming.
Is it possible that one in five Australians never considered air travel in the first place?
We only produce 1.5 per cent or so of the world’s so-called greenhouse gases;
And I’ve been meaning to talk to y’all about that. Just how long do you think the Great Satan can go on carrying your water on this issue? You’ve got to do better.
Kantong Kevin is looking for votes in all the Huang Long places…
Fabulous turn or phrase and good column, Tim, but how dare you bore Ian Smith of Sydney.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 04 11 at 12:27 PM • permalinkRebecca, I bet they do. Aren’t the polar ice caps on Mars melting? From what I hear, Martians don’t have SUVs, because the Martians are frozen. So who are they going to blame for carbon emissions creating global warming on Mars?
US! And then they’re going to want revenge. And that’s where the asteroids come in.
Can I please get some this supposed Warmening! It has been snowing here in the Chicago area all day. I am looking out of my office building at a freakin’ snowstorm. In mid-April.
Graahhh!
Posted by Major John on 2007 04 11 at 02:09 PM • permalinkHey, Major John, we must be neighbors. It’s 3 pm here now and still coming down - nasty, heavy, slushy stuff. I had to salt the front steps and sidewalk this morning.
As for polls - well, as Urbs in Horto likes to say, ``Tell me what result you want and I’ll write you a poll that will get it.’’ You don’t realize how heavily slanted those questions are until some pollster calls you up and tries them out on you. A few weeks ago I got a call from someone taking a poll for our Congresscritter, Rahm Emanuel. Most of the questions were along the lines of, ``Is Rahm doing an outstanding job representing the district, an excellent job, or merely a wonderful job?’’ and no, ``none of the above’’ is not an option.
Polls are crap.
Posted by Sonetka's Mom on 2007 04 11 at 03:49 PM • permalink#6
Don’t worry, Ash. The asteroids are going to hit us before global warming gets through doing its thing. Or, hmmm… you don’t suppose the Martians have something to do with those asteroids, do you?
I was under the impression that Global warming was melting all the asteroids, thus depriving the stellar bears of their habitat. Packs of homeless, roaming stellar bears will give the Martians plenty to worry about, other than us.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2007 04 11 at 04:36 PM • permalinkOh no! You mean Ursa’s in danger? Which one?? Not both??? Damn that gerbil worming.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 04 11 at 04:45 PM • permalinkAsh_ wrote:
And that’s where the asteroids come in.
Enh, the asteroids are easy to deal with. It’s those darned small flying saucers that appear at the worst possible moment that are more threatening.
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2007 04 11 at 04:56 PM • permalinkClimate-friendly spending? Huh?
Investing in carbon indulgenc…er…credits, and…uhh…dieing off?
Climate-friendly means not consuming, as far as the eco-idiots are concerned, no? The eco-idiot agenda is to eliminate the carbon footprint of the industrialized world. So buying solar panels or wind turbines is not sufficient because those products are a result of carbon consuming industrialized processes.
Ultimately, this means reverting to a third world agrarian life, where bare subsistence is the only reason for living. Any standard of living greater than such is a burden to one’s successors on the planet.
Aunty quotes small car sales as increasing, the best measure is prolly the segments’ portion of the pie chart, regardless of the pie growning or shrinking.
Joe Citizen usually votes with his wallet and no doubt will be unimpressed with the term ‘carbon tax’ and will prolly have a few Stern words about it ......voters in Wilton, NSW, may cast their ballots at the magnificently-named Tim Blair Community Centre
I have visions of 1.618 camped out the front in wild anticipation.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 04 11 at 08:10 PM • permalinkWell I guess these 2 will have no excuses for flying around the 3rd world countries adopting accessories as they go…
They can even sink to new depths thanks to the submarine on board.
I can’t believe the hipocracy of these low lifes (Sorry in advance for spelling, I’m a little hung over).
And O/T but still in the vein of low lifes.. I’m getting pretty sick of opening every Sydney paper & seeing f’ing Maxin McKew’s face & opinion. I live in Bennelong & it’s going to be a long year. I think I’ll have to stop watching Oz TV (which I pretty much have) & reading the papers (except for the business sections being the capitalist I am).
Posted by ozconservative on 2007 04 11 at 08:30 PM • permalinkI got a call from someone taking a poll for our Congresscritter, Rahm Emanuel. Most of the questions were along the lines of, ``Is Rahm doing an outstanding job representing the district, an excellent job, or merely a wonderful job?’’ and no, ``none of the above’’ is not an option.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Polls are junk. It’s easy as sin to skew them any way you please; I guarantee that the poll Sonetka’s Mom mentioned will yield an 80% “excellent” rate, because that’s the one that sounds least gleeful.
Does anybody believe poll data?
*goes back to playing Kingdom of Loathing*
Posted by Tungsten Monk on 2007 04 11 at 08:46 PM • permalinkFigures don’t lie, but liars figure. Unless you know the questions, what choices are given for answers, how many choices, how the question is asked, who is asked, what the statistical methods are used, you have no idea what was said or what was meant. By the time the pollster “simplifies” & puts their bias on, and then math ignorant, poll ignorant “reporters” summarize, and then those results are summarized by others, and then a headline writer puts their spin on it, the “results” don’t even have relation to that actual results. Polling is barely a pseudo-science, but layer all the other crap on and you have pretty much a cottage industry of crap producers.
Polls on environmental issues aren’t worth much for this very reason. Where I work, we find that a very general question like:
“Are you worried about global warming?” or
“Do you think the government should do more about global warming?”
will get a very high level of responses in the affirmative (usually over 80%).
As other commenters have noted, this can be because the person surveyed tells the pollster (usually a cute-sounding call centre worker) what they want to hear. Additionally, a well-documented source of bias arises from the lack of detail contained in the question about the potential costs to the person polled of government action.
That is, if the question was:
“Do you think that the government should do more about global warming by placing a tax on carbon emissions which would increase your power bills by 25% a year?”
you get a very different response.
This article is a great example of the phenomenon:
Britons unwilling to change despite climate threat
Few people are making significant changes to their lifestyle to counter climate change despite a widespread acceptance of its dangers, according to new research.A snapshot of attitudes for the Energy Saving Trust found that while 80 per cent of the public believed climate change was affecting Britain, almost half were doing nothing to halt its impact.
...
Strong environmental initiatives were also unwelcome. The public considered strong green measures such as new taxes, road charging and carbon rationing to be less socially acceptable than banning smoking in public or same-sex marriages.When asked whether they would support a “carbon credit card” that would set a personal pollution limit - yet allow the purchase of carbon credits from others - 42 per cent ruled the idea out, 28 per cent said probably not and only 5 per cent definitely agreed.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2007 04 11 at 10:31 PM • permalinkGlobal cooling could develop on Earth in 50 years and have serious consequences before it is replaced by a period of warming in the early 22nd century, a Russian Academy of Sciences’ astronomical observatory’s report says…
30 year old news you think? No - this is a recent report (thanks to a bolta reader). Global cooling is coming…again!
Russian scientists forecast global cooling in 6-9 yearsPosted by walterplinge on 2007 04 12 at 12:03 AM • permalink#21
Cluebat Mosman DINK McKew’s spiel on ethnic families in Bennelong ... FFS, I hope that the electorate sees through this shite.A Queenslander with a drunkard father like KRudder’s, too.
“In short, all problems are solvable.”
It’s been quite a few years ago, but I still remember my prof in Advanced Differential Equations telling us that in the first DiffEQ course we had been given problems that were known to have answers, and that “it appears that maybe only some 10% of differential equation problems have answers. If you find an answer to a problem and it works, then the equation has an answer. If you don’t find an answer, we don’t know if it has an answer. So far, about 90% of the equations we have examined have not had an answer found.”
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2007 04 12 at 01:20 AM • permalinkExperts predict climate change could result in an 80% drop in the value of coastal properties here in NSW…. by Dr karl Mallon..the cash value of a home would be cut by up to 80 per cent.
What about shonky real estate fees, deduct government home taxes, then it should be worth it’s real value? Weather conditions are just plain stupid!
While looking up old newspapers, I recently chanced across this article from the Sydney Sun, Oct 30 1979, page 9:
CARTER’s ACE…FEAR
Jimmy Carter knew long ago he would never win a second term as President on the record of his first.
He knew his chances of securing another four years in the White House hinged on his ability to convince voters that the alternative was worse.
The latest opinion polls show that he has succeeded – Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, are neck and neck going down to the line.
[...]
Throughout the campaign he has laboured to steer debate away toward foreign policy – which he regards as his great strength [sic] – and away from America’s sick economy. Opinion polls show that his exploitation of the war and peace issue has been responsible for his comeback.
It’s funny because it’s true. The rest of the article records further exanmples of Carter’s delusions, including his wearing of red cowboy boots on the campaign trail in Texas.
You will find many similar articles about the ALP’s chances in 1975, or before the current Aussie government’s last landslide.
Posted by Jim Geones on 2007 04 14 at 10:12 AM • permalink
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If most people are like me, they just tell the pollster whatever it is they want to hear so they’ll go away.
I choose to buy the stuff that’s carbon friendly. You know, the processes it went through must release as much carbon as possible.