With warnings about global warming reaching a fever pitch in recent weeks--Vanity Fair is about to come out with a special section featuring George Clooney and Julia Roberts on its cover--most Americans are convinced that the Earth is being affected, but they have still not grown urgently concerned about it, according to a Gallup poll released today.
Maybe the public is smarter than they get credit for. I know that this may be difficult for the editors of Vanity Fair to understand, but when I am looking for serious advice or relevant information on politics, science, or (gasp!) global warming, my instincts aren't to pay attention to a magazine that has Kiera Knightly and Scarlet Johannson naked on their cover. When I look at magazines with naked women on the cover, politics and science aren't foremost in my consciousness, nor I'm guessing most anyone else's.