Climate Change Meets Middle America

June 18, 2006 – Vol.11 No.13

CLIMATE CHANGE MEETS MIDDLE AMERICA.

The most widely read magazine in the United States is Parade. It reaches nearly 34 million households each week as a free insert in more than 370 Sunday newspapers. Parade estimates that it has more than 79 million readers, or more than a quarter of the US population. It has been in publication since 1941.

Parade is geared for mainstream, middle America. Though generally nonpolitical it often asks readers to join the political process. That is, get out and vote.

The feature story of the December 5, 2004 issue “Let’s Stop Scaring Ourselves” by author Michael Crichton was basically a promotional piece for his then latest book “State of Fear.” That novel attempts to turn global warming into junk science. Because of the best-selling book Crichton became briefly an advisor to President George Bush.

The magazine has changed its tune since then.

In the most recent edition, Sunday, June 25, 2006, the feature story is “How Climate Change Affects You Right Now, A Special Report: Why You Can’t Ignore the Changing Climate.” It’s by Eugene Linden who also has a recent book “The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather and the Destruction of Civilizations.”

The article talks of recent weather phenomena, warming temperatures and the growing cost - in dollars and cents - of climate change such as a 70 percent increase in property insurance rates in Florida by the state’s largest insurer, State Farm.

The story offers 30 tips (in print and online) on how citizens can take action on climate change. Included are political action: demand that government make climate change a priority and; encourage your Representative and Senators to enact a carbon tax. (A carbon tax is not even on the radar screen of Congress as a method for dealing with climate change. It’s amazing that Parade would mention it.)

A national election is only a few months away. Will global warming and climate change be a political issue this year? Unlikely. The latest survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project revealed that only 19 percent of Americans are worried a great deal about global warming as opposed to 51 percent in Spain, 66 percent in Japan, 65 percent in India but only 20 percent in China where rapid economic growth is probably the talk of the town.

But what about 2008? Will the nation elect a climate-concerned president? The election may depend on the weather between now and then. A couple of years of normal weather will make people forget about climate change. But, a couple of rough years in key states - such as Florida - and it could be weather that determines the next occupant of the White House.

The article in Parade conveniently came in the same week as a report requested by Congress from the National Research Council (NRC) affirmed that the world’s climate has been hotter in the past 25 years than at any time in the previous 400. Another report, too, was published that blamed global warming for about half the warmth in the waters in the tropical North Atlantic that fueled the intense 2005 hurricane season. That report by Kevin Trenberth and Dennis Shea of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research says that natural cycles (which is the official US government mantra explaining the high number of hurricanes in 2005) were a minor player in the active and damaging season.

Visit the National Centre for Atmospheric Research for the hurricane report http://www.ncar.ucar.edu/ , the National Academies for the National Research Council at http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc/ (click News Office, News Releases) and Parade http://www.parade.com/