Final Topic Presentation

This Tuesday December 7th, 2010, we will all be giving a speech about our topic lasting for around 5 minutes and highlight a specific issue I found interesting about the research I have conducted over the past several months. While trying to decide what was most important to talk about I couldn't settle on any specific attribute about renewable energy. Then I thought, "Well, what is the most interesting thing I have learned about the topic in general?" To that question I would have to say that it would have to be the divide among citizens and voters regarding their stances on renewable energy. I didn't realize there was so much of a partisanship perspective that is involved in this technology. In an article I found, 38% of PEOPLE believe that the Democratic party would do a better job at dealing with the nation's energy problems, as oppose to 28% of the people who believed the Republicans would do a better job.

In another poll done showed evidence that in terms of the overall goal for our countries answer for energy issues, 52% of Republicans OVER 28% of Democrats, believe that the top priority to keep energy prices low, which may come at a cost to the environment.  While when asked about the top priority should be to protect the environment at all costs, 41% of Republicans agreed with this and 68% of Democrats endorsed this statement. 

These are just a few of the examples I have come across as to the divide among political parties about the energy issue.

What Barack Obama Said..and Did?

I was recently looking on Gallup's Website at some polls regarding the Gulf Oil Spill and public opinions towards the event and who should take responsibility in its causation.  I then tried to look into what President Barack Obama was planning on doing in terms of renewable energy and the future of this countries involvement with oil. As far as what I know Barack Obama has SAID what his opinion was on renewable energy use in America and what the future will have in store for America if we don't consider the future of renewable energy. In the video Barack Obama said he will "invest $150 Billion dollars over the period of 10 years," this statement was in 2008. "in establishing a green energy sector creating up to 5 million new green jobs, and those jobs pay well and can not be outsourced." Two years later in a USA Today/Gallup poll one of their questions, where a random-digit-dial sampling of 1,014 adults of age 18 or older living in the continental U.S., on June 11-13th, 2010, asks "As you may know, BP is currently in charge of the efforts to control the oil spill and its effects on the ocean and coastal areas. Do you think the federal government should take over these efforts, or should BP continue to be in charge?" In respondents 45% believed that the federal government should be responsible for the cleanup efforts and 49% believed that BP should be responsible for it. that means if asked whether or not the federal government needs to or BP needs to, and more people take this as a enforcement of movement towards renewable energy resources.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has brought up offshore drilling and the government's role in the policy towards energy and the entire industry. The environment in this year's primaries is a hot topic issue for voters. This issue is especially salient in those states in the southern parts of The United States of America where the oil spill by British Petroleum has severely altered many people's life on a daily basis. A lot of citizens are thus concerned about what they will do in the future because a lot of people who make a living off of fishing and the Gulf's ecosystem have not been able to fish do to all the oil and chemicals and pollutants in the water.

The first poll I found was taken between May 13-16, 2010 that was asking 1,002 adults from telephone interviews what national issue that congress should act on. Priorities for congress that these adults in the sample panned out in the order from most important to least important, the job situation (81%), the country's energy needs (57%), immigration policy (59%), financial regulation (54%), climate change (32%). What the Pew Research Center shows by doing these polls is that the number two most important issue that citizens believe the government should be working on is the country's energy needs. Climate change was also on the top five list which is significant that two different environment issues are needed to be eagerly dealt with.

Another poll done between June 10-13, 2010 I found by the Pew Research Center involving 1,010 adults in telephone interviews, asks people what they believe the United States Government should do in regard to offshore drilling. 31% said they believe the government should expand drilling, 35% wished to allow offshore drilling but ban the development of new wells, 22% said that all offshore drilling should be banned, and 12% didn't know. People you can then conclude that due to the situation in the gulf, one of the countries most salient issues they want congress to deal with, people want the government to get more involved in the surveillance and monitoring of mining and drilling for resources in deep water.

Public Opinions on GLobal Warming Have Changed Little Over the Past Few Years

Our teacher Dr. Gelbman e-mailed this article to me today with enthusiasm about the results. I was as well intrigued by the results that ended up coming out of the research. What I was most intrigued with was how divided the two different parties are in terms of what their opinions on global warming is, what they believe is the cause of it, and the confusion of whether or not the scientific community believes global warming is actually occurring.

In a recent poll done by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, with interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, have yeilded opinions among adults has changed very little on global warming. In terms of the number of people who believe it exists or is caused by humans. The poll was conducted between October 13-18, 2010 among 2,251 adults age 18 or older living in the continental United States. The researches used 1,487 respondents on a landline telephone, 764 people on a cell phone, 311 of those who did not own a landline.

59% of adults said that there is solid evidence that the Earth's average temperature has been getting warmer over the past few decades, compared to 57% who said this in October 2009. 34% say that global warming is occurring mostly because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, compared to 36% who said this in October 2009. These results are interesting to see how stable this opinion poll can be. 32% said that global warming is a very serious problem while 31% say it is somewhat serious. In October 2009, 35% of people said that it was very serious and 30% said it was somewhat serious. This is astounding to see such similarities and consistency in public opinion polls a year apart from each other.

What I found most interesting in the results was that 79% of Democrats say there is solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been increasing over the past few decades, and 53% of Democrats also believe that the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. Conversely, the Republican stance on the issue is much the opposite. 38% of Republicans agree that the Earth is warming and 16% of them say that it is due to human activity. 53% of Republicans sat there is no solid evidence of global warming. Again all of these results and patters are little changed from a year ago.

Recent updates and maybe some new questions?

I have found some interesting new information regarding my topic of renewable energy this semester. I love looking at how people tend to be skeptical of the idea and maybe don't see the full potential of it's capability. There were two telephone polls taken by the Pew Research Center that show something I have yet to see. They asked 1,010 people who were reached with both landlines and cell lines, whether or not they would favor, oppose, or refused or didn't know, on a comprehensive energy bill in congress, demanding tougher efficiency standards for buildings and major appliances. 78% favored that, with 17% opposing, and 5% didn't know or refused introducing the bill. 

Now usually this being conducted as a telephone poll there would be all sorts of factors that you could apply in order to interpret the poll with bias factors. But what I found so interesting that another poll consisting of the same nature in topic as the previous one, was conducted by the Pew Research Center ten days later on June 24, 2010, yields eerily similar results. This poll was done with 1,802 people from landlines and cell phone lines, asking them to respond with whether they oppose or favor the government requiring that new homes and buildings meet higher efficiency standards. 78% said they would favor this, 18% said they would oppose, and 3% refused or didn't know. These numbers are almost identical to the previous poll results. They both showed 78% favored the idea of the government doing something to implement sources of sustainable, or renewable energy in two polls done ten days apart.

Now what does this say? Are we to mobilize and demand their be more government action with renewable energy implementation in society? Do we propose a constitutional amendment to the Constitution about renewable energy ONLY to be used in society? 

Side notes

So there are some things that I am going to try and make sure of or rather avoid. As I was browsing through some polls done about renewable energy one about whether or not people would agree to have their home "retrofitted" to be able to utilize solar panels and such here. There is also a poll done asking people think it would benefit our national security is we switched from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources here.

What In both of these polls I noticed that they were done by telephone with about 1,000 people.  I always make sure that I take both of these polls results with a grain of salt. Reason being that telephone polls are not always the best in being an accurate representation of the population because of the inconsistency of the survey takers. People don't always want to be on the phone talking to strangers when they're eating dinner, or let alone stay on the phone long enough to hear them finish the question before hanging up on them.

Regardless, the results of the pole which was taken in 2006, asked people if they were more or less likely than a year ago to consider retrofitting your home to use solar, wind, or other renewable energy sources. I think the question is unnecessarily confusing. I don't think, or at least I wouldn't have, used the phrase asking whether they were more or less likely now than a year ago. Because unless they were referring to a specific incident like maybe whether or not they are more likely or not after hurricane Katrina to now consider retrofitting their home. But most people said they would just like to keep their house the same.

The other poll was asking how much they think it would benefit national security to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy source, on a scale from 1-10. Most people said it would highly benefit, but also take into account when you bring up national security in a survey in 2006, people will most likely answer in favor of their security, so I wasn't too surprised by the results.

So always keep in mind, I know I will, that when researching your topic don't put too much merit into those polls done on the internet, phone, or self administered surveys, because they may not always be the best representation of the the opinions of American people.

"...and the monumental achievement award for the year 2016 goes to...?!"

...LAVA! For the impressive achievement of creating the world's first sustainable city in the United Arab Emerites. The 100% zero-carbon, zero-emission city is in Madar, seventeen kilometers from Abu Dhabi. http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/7394/lava-wins-first-prize-for-masdar-worlds-first-sustainable-city-in-uae.html

Good news!!

Over the past few blogs I have been ranting and raving about how I wish more people would wake up and see the inevitable future, whether we are ready for it or not, we will need to invent or perfect a source of energy that does not involve non-renewable resources. There is a finite amount of resources that we have at our disposal. They will eventually run out.

But most importantly, we will have to create this energy source BEFORE these finite resources run out. Because we will destroy our planet and our race in the meantime by polluting the air, the ground, the water, the plants, the animals, and everything on this planet. I was using the polling the nations database, which is extremely useful for our research paper by the way, when I found results of a poll that people encourage the use of renewable energy resources in business, http://poll.orspub.com.proxy.lib.ilstu.edu/document.php?id=quest10.out_2972&type=hitlist&num=0 . This study shows that 87% of people favor including requirements that utilities produce more energy from wind, solar, or other renewable sources in a comprehensive energy bill being proposed by congress. 9% opposed this and 4% refused or didn't know.

I'm happy about this because I believe it shows that most people think it would be a good idea to try and incorporate renewable energy sources in our society and that it could not be a bad thing. I hope to see more of this!

Wake up to the truth!

I think it is important to look at the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and ask yourself, "Would I encourage the world to continue using these crude oils that can do so much harm to our environment without much effort by us. This poll that I found on Gallup.com, http://www.gallup.com/poll/1615/Environment.aspx, actually scared me.

The poll asking whether or not citizens believe the seriousness of global warming was either generally exaggerated, generally correct, or generally underestimated. The percentage of people who believed it was generally exaggerated went up from 35%to 48% in less than two years which is interesting because I would expect to to the opposite with the continued evidence of global warming environmental effects.

Conservation

What I would like to emphasize about renewable energy is the fact that it is RENEWABLE. The current system we have has a specific limit then will never be able to be used again. It is not a phony issue that was created by genius politicians trying to scare the public into blind obedience. It is an actual inevitable crisis that should be confronted with extreme caution. In the past few years it has become evident that we need to start thinking about conserving fuel and switching to a more sustainable solution. http://www.gallup.com/poll/2167/Energy.aspx In this link you can see that since early 2007 the belief that the more conservation of fuels among people has dropped from 64% to 52% by early 2010. The belief that we should use more fossil fuels has risen from 26% in early 2007 to 36% in early 2010.

ME!!!!

Hi everybody! My name is Tom Radochonski. I am in my senior year at Illinois State University and am a Political Science major still searching for my calling in life. I try to take advantage of the time we have on Earth here life seems too short and precious to take for granted. I am a person of balanced morals and a good perspective on life. I want to strive to get the best out of life that I can. I chose energy to oversee this semester because I believe in what it is trying to change. A suffocating necessity for non-renewable resources.