14 DAY TRIAL // People born between the early 1960s and the early 1980s, commonly referred to as Generation Xers, or GenX, have little to no idea about what's going on with global warming, what is causing it, and what its effect might be.
Scientists from the University of Michigan recently conducted an investigation on this issue. The team asked Generation Xers about global warming and what they think about it. Most of respondents in this group were “disengaged, dismissive or doubtful about whether global climate change is happening.”
This is the worrying conclusion of the new study. Unfortunately, such results are to be expected for an uneducated population, where disinformation spread by the media and the Republican Party weighs more than the international consensus present on the issue in the scientific community.
Just to make one thing clear here – there is no scientific debate on the issue of human-induced global warming, and the climate change it causes. The only debate exists among politicians, the fossil fuel industry, and stupid people who cannot see beyond vulgar manipulations.
Despite scientists' best efforts to inform the general public, their signals are oftentimes drowned out and questioned by certain media outlets, the most “renowned” exponent of which is Fox News.
Though their agenda of shedding doubts on global warming has been exposed, through memo leaks, the public continues to watch this channel, and form their opinions based on the words of agitators and alarmists such as Bill O'Reilley and Glenn Beck.
The conclusions of the new U-M study appear in “The Generation X Report,” which is authored by expert Jon D. Miller. This is the fourth document to be published in a continuing series, and it also covers the sources of information Generation Xers have on the topic of global warming.
“We found a small but statistically significant decline between 2009 and 2011 in the level of attention and concern Generation X adults expressed about climate change,” Miller explains.
“In 2009, about 22 percent said they followed the issue of climate change very or moderately closely. In 2011, only 16 percent said they did so,” he goes on to say. Only 18 percent of responders were concerned about climate change, and just 5 percent were alarmed about it.
A whooping two thirds of respondents said they were unsure as to whether global warming is happening at all. Around 10 percent said they do not believe the change is going on at all.
“This is an interesting and unexpected profile. Few issues engage a solid majority of adults in our busy and pluralistic society, but the climate issue appears to attract fewer committed activists – on either side – than I would have expected,” Miller says.
“The results of this report suggest that better educated young adults are more likely to recognize the importance of the problem, but that there is a broad awareness of the issue even though many adults prefer to focus on more immediate issues than the needs of the next generation,” he adds.
“These results will not give great comfort to either those deeply concerned about climate issues or those who are dismissive of the issue,” the expert concludes.