AGW belief takes a big hit in the UK

Before the big climate-change scandals hit over the last three months, confidence in the dire warnings regarding anthropogenic global warming ran high in the UK.  A new poll by the BBC shows a dramatic turn since November.  The number of people who believe that the Earth is warming because of human activity has dropped 15 points — and now trails skepticism by a wide margin:

The number of British people who are sceptical about climate change is rising, a poll for BBC News suggests.

The Populus poll of 1,001 adults found 25% did not think global warming was happening, a rise of 8% since a similar poll was conducted in November.

The percentage of respondents who said climate change was a reality had fallen from 83% in November to 75% this month.

And only 26% of those asked believed climate change was happening and “now established as largely man-made”.

Take a look at the graphic the BBC includes in its report:

The bigger problem for the AGW “profession” isn’t the 10-point increase in people who think the Earth isn’t warming at all.  In November, the British public was evenly split between those who thought the Earth was warming largely through human activity (41%) and those who were either skeptical or believed it to be environmentalist propaganda (40% total).  In three months, that went from a 41/40 split to 26/48, almost 2-1 in favor of skepticism or cynicism about AGW even without those who flat-out believe that the Earth isn’t warming at all.

When the public support for AGW was at 41%, the AGW activists had a chance of getting their agenda passed into law.  At 26%, they don’t have a prayer, and the rising level of skepticism and cynicism will likely result in less money and less attention for their programs.

In the Netherlands, the government has gotten skeptical of the IPCC after the UN body’s report put more than half of their country below sea level:

The Netherlands has asked the UN climate change panel to explain an inaccurate claim in a landmark 2007 report that more than half the country was below sea level, the Dutch government said Friday.

According to the Dutch authorities, only 26 percent of the country is below sea level, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will be asked to account for its figures, environment ministry spokesman Trimo Vallaart told AFP.

The incident could cause further embarrassment for the IPCC, which recently admitted a claim in the same report that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035 was wrong.

IPCC experts calculated that 55 percent of the Netherlands was below sea level by adding the area below sea level — 26 percent — to the area threatened by river flooding — 29 percent — Vallaart said.

The IPCC knew about the error, but just never got around to correcting it, according to Vallaart.  He has ordered a detailed review of the IPCC report to determine whether it contains any other errors.

This shows that the IPCC, far from being a scientific venue, is instead a clearinghouse for AGW advocates who seem to be able to insert any wild claims they can make for scare-mongering.  The non-existent Himalayan glacier melt, the Amazon rainforest claims, and now the elevation level of The Netherlands have all been proven false, and rather easily.  Scientists would have tested their data and conclusions, while hysterics merely amplify them.  The IPCC clearly uses the latter process rather than the former, and that is why public opinion has turned on the AGW profession.

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