Free Republic

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The devastating floods which have killed scores of people across central Europe are the wake-up call that could push industrial nations to act faster to stop the planet heating up, a leading scientist says. Robert Watson, now the World Bank's chief scientist since he was ousted from the chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) in April due to U.S. opposition, insists dramatic floods and droughts will become more frequent. "You don't have to identify each event with climate change. All you have to say is this is the type of world that may...

Public opinion research is a scientific enterprise. But in the service of activism, its scientific precision and accuracy can go awry. For example, with the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development throttling into gear, the company Politics Online has launched the "first ever Online Global Poll on the issues of the environment and sustainable development." The summit will be teeming with heads of state, government bureaucrats, business leaders, and all manner of non-profit activist groups. Politics Online seemingly wants to insert the opinions of ordinary folks from around the world into the cacophony of the summit. The most interesting results from...