Dubie Scheduled to Ride the Tiger

The promo for the Vermont Tiger event called Crunch Time notes that:

“He [Dubie] has long been interested in new ideas and innovative policies to promote economic growth in Vermont and was a panelist at last year's ‘Compete or Retreat’ symposium.”

Compete or Retreat indeed.

During the recent budget debate Dubie has been absent and hasn’t presided over the State Senate for two days. Earlier it was reported he had canceled a scheduled candidate debate appearance for April 28 at a debate featuring 7th and 8th graders questions. The debate had already been rescheduled once to accommodate him.
But the man who could be the Where’s Waldo of Vermont gubernatorial campaigns will ride the friendly Vermont Tiger on May 25th.

The event promises to be mostly free from the probing questions of 7th and 8th graders.
Dubie will deliver the morning address at the symposium which will deal with the very serious and immediate economic challenges facing the state and discuss reforms and routes to prosperity. That Dubie actually missed a chance this week to practice governing and deal with the very problems under discussion at the symposium is significant of notice.

If it is true, as the overworked saying goes that 80% of life is just showing up how should we rate Lite Gov. Brian Dubie’s campaign?

Junk Food Obesity and Recruits

Food is in the news again, or still, but this time it is a matter of National Security.
Mission:Readiness a non-profit group of retired military officers including retired generals and admirals have expressed concern that 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too fat to join the military.
"When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice,” said, retired Navy Rear Adm. James Barnett Jr... He noted that national security in the year 2030 is "absolutely dependent" on reversing child obesity rates.
The group,Mission:Readiness is urging Congress in a recent report(PDF) to eliminate junk food and high-calorie beverages from schools, put more money into the school lunch program and develop new strategies that help children develop healthier habits.
The group referred to similar push military leaders made in 1945, when concerns about poor health and malnutrition resulted in the creation of National School Lunch Program.

Fast Food Insurance

A new study (found here) highlights the extent to which life and health insurance companies are invested in the fast food industry. Even as the recent health care bill increases, by mandates the number of people covered by private health care U.S., Canadian and European-based insurance firms own nearly $2 billion in fast food stocks. The study points out that fast food can be consumed responsibly but that consumption is linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease and some childhood health issues.

These are for profit companies so what would you expect? It’s sort of a life insurance profitability hedge fund perhaps.

The researchers, affiliated with Physicians for a National Health Program say this highlights the conflicts that may exist between maximizing profit and the expanding public health role of private health insurers. They state: “If insurers are to play a greater part in the health care delivery system they ought to be held to a higher standard of corporate responsibility."

U.S.-based Northwestern Mutual and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company both offer life insurance as well as disability and long-term care insurance. Northwestern Mutual owns $422.2 million of fast-food stock, with $318.1 million of McDonald's. Mass Mutual owns $366.5 million of fast-food stock, including $267.2 in McDonald's.

New Jersey-based Prudential Financial Inc. sells life insurance and long-term disability coverage. With total fast-food holdings of $355.5 million, Prudential Financial owns $197.2 of stock in McDonald's and also has significant stakes in Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box, and Yum! Brands (owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell) stock.

Climate Research Unit “Dedicated if slightly disorganized”

It is reported in the GuardianUK that climate scientists were found to be “disorganized but did not fudge [their] results” So says the second of three planned high level inquiries into the recent media fed issue of emails between East Anglia University Climate Research Unit scientists discussing global warming has been released .

The inquiry, the second of three set up in the wake of the controversy, found "absolutely no evidence of any impropriety whatsoever", according to Lord Oxburgh, who led the investigation.

Instead, Oxburgh said, many of the criticisms and assertions of scientific misconduct were likely made by people "who do not like the implications of some the conclusions" reached by the climate experts

One fiery Vermont climate change denier John McClaughry may want to re-think or amend his heated declaration of mission accomplished over what he calls the “warming zealots”, socialists and mysterious special interests.
Last December after the email dust-up McClaughry wrote far and wide of what he called the collapse of the global warming scam:

It also fatally undermines the political pressure for supranational controls over energy and economies so long urged by socialists and special interests of various stripes.
This is very bad news for the global warming crowd, from President Obama to Sen. Sanders, the big business Climate Action Group, Vermont Senate President Peter Shumlin, VPIRG, propagandist Bill McKibben, and the nuts in polar bear suits roaming the Statehouse lawn.

I Googled far and wide for reports or images of McClaughry’s intriguing reference to "nuts in polar bear suits roaming the [Vermont] Statehouse lawn" but sadly was unable to find any record of this.
It may be some strange fantasy of his that requires further investigation or treatment.

Alan Greenspan Only 30% Wrong!

Frank Rich scores 100% commenting today on Alan Greenpsan's personal responsibility matrix.

“I was right 70 percent of the time, but I was wrong 30 percent of the time,” said Alan Greenspan as he testified last week on Capitol Hill. Greenspan — a k a the Oracle during his 18-year-plus tenure as Fed chairman — could not have more vividly illustrated how and why geniuses of his stature were out to lunch while Wall Street imploded. No doubt he applied his full brain power to that 70-30 calculation. But the big picture eludes him. If the captain of the Titanic followed the Greenspan model, he could claim he was on course at least 70 percent of the time too.

New Vt State Fish,Wildlife and Lottery Commission

The Times Argus online unscientific poll asks: Do you understand Challenges for Change? Yes or No, this troubled me. Like Challenges for Change itself the poll limited its possible answers. As of early today the poll results show not surprisingly that just about a quarter of 300+ respondents say yes, they actually understand C for C.

Do those roughly 75 people that understand all work for Public Strategies Group or are some in the legislature?
Although sick of the race to the bottom aspect of the C for C I checked out the 47 page C for C pdf Progress Report.

The report details seven “First Wave” charter units, think of them as the shock troops for the CforC program.

What follows are some notes on Vermont's robust alternative planning:

Listed among three Challenge Outcomes and Proposed Measures for all “First Wave “ departments are these nuggets of managerial guidance and brilliance : Increase employees’ engagement in their work. After years of layoffs and threatened layoffs by Governor Douglas this could be a stand alone challenge.

Some specifics worth highlighting by dept. include
the Department of Liquor Control getting additional revenue for the general fund through increased sales. And a gift card program generating $50,000 in new revenue the first year of sales.

The Dept of Fish and Wildlife initiatives include Generate additional revenues by promoting the sale of Department merchandise such as t-shirts, mugs, hats, books, posters, patches and stamps
And finally this, which boggles the entrepreneurial imagination: if feasible, Fish and Wildlife should collaborate with VT Lottery Commission to develop new mutually beneficial products

An Aged Vermont Whine

S.117 becomes law with Gubernatorial Whining Statement

Governor Douglas allowed S.117, an act changing the date of Vermont’s Primary Election to become law yesterday without his signature. This new law which moves the primary to August 24th brings Vermont into compliance with a Federal requirement regarding a minimum of 45 days for overseas voters (mostly service members) to return their absentee ballots.

Other states that faced this issue include Minnesota which made similar changes months ago. Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty signed it with Minnesota National guard troops present at the ceremony.
However Governor Douglas opposed the change, and until today’s acquiescence had been coy about whether he would veto the bill.

Characteristically he did not miss the opportunity to restate his well known objections including his concern that “Vermonters often enjoy their hard-earned vacations and surely are not focused on an election…”
Accompanying his press release with his own petulant version of a presidential signing statement, Douglas offered up a sort of gubernatorial whining statement that lamented ;

“But now, in the guise of assuring that the votes of our brave men and women in the military are counted, as of course they should be, the Legislature has passed S. 117, which in all likelihood will discourage voter participation.

Vermont Springtime Heat Record Broken for Second Day!

Burlington Vermont

Saturday, the temperature recorded at Burlington International Airport was 79 degrees, six degrees higher than the previous record for April 3 that was set in 1981.
Montpelier had a temperature of 83, breaking its 1981 record by 12 degrees. St. Johnsbury had heated up to 80 degrees, five degrees above its 1981 record.

Senators DeMint, Inhofe any comments?


The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time.

This past winter climate skeptics seized on the blizzard in Washington ,snowmaggedon,as proof that global warming was a hoax .A hoax promoted by the global warming industry to use George Will’s term . The fact that it was cold outside and Washington had a blizzard proves there is no global Warming.
Climate skeptic Sen. James Inhofe even built himself an igloo and cleverly placed a sign a top reading Al Gore’s new home. Not to be outdone Senator Jim DeMint found himself twittering “It’s going to keep snowing in D.C. until Al Gore cries ‘uncle.'"


So I wondered what the National Republican climate brain-trust would make of the weather as I sat here in Vermont yesterday with the record breaking Springtime 80 degree temps.
Someone should call Republican Senators Inhofe and DeMint; they’d know what’s up with the weather around here.

Dubie Emission Standards or “The General turned to me and said, ‘Brian…’ ”

Jobs tour completed, Vermont gubernatorial candidate Brian Dubie recently opted out of a televised union-sponsored debate in Barre that might have proved a useful venue to discuss his insights on the state job situation. His absence and low key campaign style gives added significance to all the appearances he does make and utterances he does utter.

Years ago, Vermont joined thirteen other states in court to tighten standards for new car fuel emissions. Now those standards have been adapted by the Obama administration.
Certainly there were generous cheers and credit was shared liberally at the ceremony in Montpelier. At the event, gubernatorial hopeful Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie readily weighed in, happily recalling a special evening on a rooftop in Baghdad and also declaring that “Green really is green,” while brandishing a dollar bill.

Dubie reflected on a conversation he had with a U.S. military general on a Baghdad roof in Iraq last year. That general, looking over an evening skyline in the war-torn country, pressed for the need to move off of foreign oil coming from "dangerous parts of the world."

He said clean energy and reducing car emissions are essential to the country's environmental and economic health and safety.

"Green really is green," Dubie said, holding up a dollar bill he took from his pocket.Times Argus

Last year in Iraq?
Unless this is a regular occurrence in the life of Brian, he seems confused about when he shared a memorable evening on a rooftop in Baghdad with a U.S. military general.

From an article Dubie wrote for Aerospace States Association October, 2007

On a mid-September evening in 2006, I stood on a rooftop overlooking the city of Baghdad with a U.S. Air Force Commanding General. I was deployed to Iraq as an Air Force reservist and member of an Air Force field assessment team. The city was beautiful at night, but it was not peaceful.
The General turned to me and said, “Brian, America has to find ways to use less oil — especially oil that comes from dangerous parts of the world.”

Poisson d'Avril

The French call April 1 Poisson d'Avril, or "April Fish." French children sometimes tape a picture of a fish on the back of their schoolmates, crying "Poisson d'Avril" when the prank is discovered.

Click on: FOOL,for more than you may care to know about April 1st

The Spartan Wit

The Spartans were especially famous for their dry wit, which we now know as "laconic humour."

Even more Spartan humor:Click here

Meat theFacts: Livestock in a Changing Landscape

Meat the facts
Presented here for no particular reason are some astounding facts from a report titled Livestock in a Changing Landscape. No intention at meat guilt stuff just passing along a few astounding facts about what the world wide industrial carnivore system is doing to the planet
Among the key findings in the report are:
• More than 1.7 billion animals are used in livestock production worldwide and occupy more than one-fourth of the Earth's land.
• Production of animal feed consumes about one-third of total arable land.
• Livestock production accounts for approximately 40 percent of the global agricultural gross domestic product.
• The livestock sector, including feed production and transport, is responsible for about 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Impacts on humanity

Although about 1 billion poor people worldwide derive at least some part of their livelihood from domesticated animals, the rapid growth of commercialized industrial livestock has reduced employment opportunities for many, according to the report. In developing countries, such as India and China, large-scale industrial production has displaced many small, rural producers, who are under additional pressure from health authorities to meet the food safety standards that a globalized marketplace requires.

Harold Mooney, professor of biology and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, is co-editor of the report comments
Consider the piece of ham on your breakfast plate, and where it came from before landing on your grocery shelf. First, take into account the amount of land used to rear the pig. Then factor in all the land, water and fertilizer used to grow the grain to feed the pig and the associated pollution that results.

Finally, consider that while the ham may have come from Denmark, where there are twice as many pigs as people, the grain to feed the animal was likely grown in Brazil, where rainforests are constantly being cleared to grow more soybeans, a major source of pig feed.

Livestock in a Changing Landscape is a collaboration of the FAO, SHL, Woods Institute for the Environment, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Scientific Committee for Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD), and Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative (LEAD).

Texas Learns 'Em Good

“I don’t care what the educational political lobby and their allies on the left say,” he declared at one point. “Evolution is hooey...The secular humanists may argue that we are a secular nation,” McLeroy said, jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis.
"But we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes."

Don McLeroy Republican member of the Texas State School Board

Evslin’s Bureaucratic Cloud

"But this switch to web-based government, just like the switch to web-based flight reservations and banking, means better service to clients at lower cost to the service provider. Not too good to be true."

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas’ resident smart man, Tom Evslin,is still threatening Vermont with an earlier promise of a government that will be run just like web-based flight reservations and banking services. He has expanded on this theme lately and now highlights the wonder of ATMs and computerized bank records as examples of efficiency for state government. Another newly added folksy illustration of life after our technological revolution is how easy it will be to apply for a hunting/fishing license. (Currently Hunting /fishing licenses can easily be purchased at most general stores in Vermont.) Perhaps he’s keeping it simple out of consideration for those that don’t share his vision of Vermont “in the cloud.”

But once records become electronic, they're wherever you need them to be. It doesn't matter whether they're in a corporate data center, on a disk in a state office. or somewhere off in a huge computer center operated by Google or Amazon (technically this is called being "in the cloud"). When you need access to them, they're where you are. You can withdraw money from any ATM (at least if you don't mind fees); you can charge at any store; and you ought to be able to go into any government office to do whatever government business you need to do.

He never touches the potential problems with cloud storage of public records on systems accessible through Google or Amazon. Previously his performance at the Vermont State Recovery Office was rated 47th out of 50 at providing required public access to economic stimulus spending and contract bid information. Evslin is a smart fellow, yet he persists in making simple arguments for his brave new world, with only fleeting references to what he calls “current organizational constraints.” These constraints would surely involve “attendant discomforts, confusion, and fears,” but Evslin glosses over these specifics and proceeds speedily past. No reason to dwell on job and pay cuts.

Anyone with a minimum familiarity with web-based transactions knows the fur-balls that electronic data can cough up. I wish he trusted in his vision and Vermonters enough to raise the level of discussion above 1960’s Popular Science Magazine. Stop chatting up the wonder of a government as futuristic as ATMs and airline flight reservation systems. How about a discussion about who wins and who loses in your bureaucratic cloud? Get out from the closed door meetings and explain to Vermont citizens, (or clients as you call them) how these changes will challenge them.

Toxic Donations coming to Vermont (Updated)

UPDATE: (Vermont will not accept the toxic waste after all.Wasted donations?
“It comes down to, we don’t agree with the way that EPA has characterized the waste,” said Dave DiDomenico, a regulator in the state Solid Waste Program. The Interstate Waste Services landfill in Moretown is not designed or certified to take hazardous waste.)Free Press

Vermont's Burlington Free Press takes note today for Vermonters of the imminent arrival of approximately 33,000 tons of contaminated soil. This hazardous soil will be shipped to Interstate Waste Service’s Moretown landfill. The dioxin-contaminated soil is coming from a Massachusetts Superfund site where wood was treated chemically. This ARRA funded cleanup will make way for a 120 space parking lot. According to a Foxboro Ma. Newspaper, it will take roughly one thousand round trips and 100 work days to haul it away.

The soil is a hazardous “substance” according to Federal EPA and must be removed from the Massachusetts site. However in logic that’s worthy of Catch 22 the soil is not a hazardous “waste” and therefore can be dumped in Vermont. A manager at Interstate Waste’s Moretown site couldn’t say “offhand” if they tested leachate for dioxins.
Vermont Powerless unless the soil is reclassified?
The soil is a hazardous “substance” according to Federal EPA and must be removed from the Massachusetts site. However, in logic that’s worthy of Catch 22, the soil is not a hazardous “waste” and therefore can be dumped in Vermont.
Vermont’s ANR Dave DiDomenico says unless the Federal EPA reclassifies the soil as hazardous, it can do nothing to stop the dumping in Moretown.

“They are private landfills. We can’t force them to take a waste, and we can’t not allow them to take something that isn’t hazardous,” he said.

Douglas’ Waste Service Donations
In July last year Vermont's Seven Days and Green Mountain Daily noted that among other donations Governor Douglas had revieved large (by Vermont standards) $2,000 campaign donations from the Interstate Waste Service Moretown landfill and a small landfill in South Hadley Mass. The town of South Hadley owns the landfill and it is operated by Interstate Waste Services.

Zombies at the Mall

During a 2006 summer festival at a Minneapolis shopping mall seven zombies created an event to illustrate mindless consumerism. The group "calling themselves zombies and almost touching people.” were the subject of 911 calls complaining about them walking "in a stiff, lurching fashion" throughout the mall .For musical accompaniment the zombies carried packs of audio equipment with wires sticking out which police claimed looked like a bomb or simulated WMD.

News reports say ...All but one member of the group were held at the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center for two nights; the minor in the group was taken to a juvenile detention center.
Jail officials confiscated Sternberg's prosthetic leg, explaining that he might use it as a weapon.
The group members were initially booked on charges of displaying simulated weapons of mass destruction, a charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But a sergeant reviewing the case determined that none of the sound equipment seized fit the definition of a simulated WMD.
Authorities returned the property, including [Zombie] Sternberg’s prosthetic leg, and released the group without filing a formal criminal complaint.

Now, years later a Minneapolis circuit court ruled that police should not have arrested the zombies. However the court dismissed a lawsuit for damages. The zombies claimed their arrests and overnight detention were unconstitutional. Discrimination was alleged in the complaint over the confiscation of one zombie’s prosthetic leg.

The St. Louis-based appeals court reversed on the Fourth Amendment claims, saying the plaintiffs "were engaged in protected expressive conduct."
"[A]n objectively reasonable person would not think probable cause exists under the Minnesota disorderly conduct statue to arrest a group of peaceful people for engaging in an artistic protest by playing music, broadcasting statements, dressing as zombies, and walking erratically in downtown Minneapolis during a week-long festival," the three-judge panel wrote.
Nor was there probable cause to arrest the plaintiffs for displaying simulated WMDs, the court added.

New Vermont Nuke from Dept. of Half-baked Ideas

At the Vermont Senate vote on Yankee re-licensing newly appointed Senator Peg Flory proposed an amendment that called for supporting a new reactor be built on the Vermont Yankee site. I wonder if she realized that rate payers in many states are being asked to pay nuclear plant construction costs in advance.

The advertised nuclear power rebirth is facing more problems than those generated by Vermont Yankee’s ongoing tritium leak. Daunting start up construction costs scare private investors away. New plants can cost a quarter to one hundred percent of an entire utilities market capitalization.

Federal backed loans guarantees and local rate payers will be footing major portions of the bill if utilities have their way. In states with nuclear power projects, utilities have lobbied for the ability to charge rate payers while construction is in progress. Residents of Georgia, Florida, Texas, South Carolina and Missouri may all be required to cover the advance costs of new nuclear power construction.
The Washington Post reports

Financing has always been one of the biggest obstacles to a renaissance of nuclear power. The plants are expensive, and construction tends to run late and over budget. …
So utilities have turned to state legislators and regulators to help contain capital costs. In states such as Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, utilities have won permission to charge customers for some of the cost of new reactors while construction is still in progress -- a financing technique that would save utilities a couple of billion dollars for each reactor. Previously, utilities had to wait until power plants were in operation before raising rates, as they still do in most states.

Vermont Yankee:It Still Leaks 24-7

Yesterday the Vermont Senate voted 26-4 to close entergy’s Vermont Yankee power plant by 2012.
But hey, it still leaks 24-7.
“brings new insight on plant operation”*
Yesterday Entergy reported that after investigating itself for misrepresenting the existence of underground piping they had suspended four more top level engineers. Included, somewhat incredibly, is the head of the team currently investigating the underground radioactive tritium leak.
These four additional suspensions bring the total to 11 high level people suspended ,disciplined and officially reprimanded for involvement in the underground pipe issue.

Entergy Nuclear announced Wednesday that it had suspended four additional senior Vermont Yankee employees - including the man who had been leading the investigation into the tritium leak - after it concluded its investigation into whether its employees lied to state regulators about the existence of buried pipes carrying radioactivity.

Larry Smith, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, said that no successor had been named to replace Dreyfuss on the tritium task force, but he stressed that finding the leak was a "team effort." He declined to say when Dreyfuss and the others were placed on leave and he said he couldn't say what administrative leave entailed.

Also placed on leave was Dave McElwee, Entergy's senior liaison engineer who was the main technical point man on regulatory issues for the company in Montpelier.

Prior to the tritium leaks and revelations of lying ,er, misleading statements Dreyfuss and McElwee were both featured prominently in Entergy’s public relations campaign. This was the rapidly terminated iamvy.com PR blitz. Before this current unpleasantness began Vermont Yankee Site VP Mike Colomb (also among those admonished for the underground pipe deception) described the ad campaigns goals like this

“brings new insight on plant operation, as the featured employees -- all Vermont residents -- express in their own words the pride and dedication they bring to their jobs, and why it is in the best interest of all Vermonters to keep the plant in service.”

Vermont Catamount Health for $1 million less ?

Chairman of the National Governors Association (NGA), Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will lead the nation’s governors at their annual winter meeting in Washington this weekend. Healthcare availability and affordability one of Douglas’ focus points will be a subject of discussion at the gathering in Washington.

Vermont’s Catamount Health the public/private healthcare plan is one innovation Douglas often notes:

“I am proud of the steps we have taken in Vermont. My chairman’s initiative focuses on helping governors lead the way in improving the quality of our system, providing more insurance coverage and addressing key cost drivers to ensure we have a system that is affordable, accessible and accountable.” said Douglas in a press release prior to his trip to Washington.

The supposedly tightfisted governor's pride may be tempered somewhat from the findings of some research into Vermont’s Catamount Health plan. The plan established in 2007 included requirements for an outside efficiency study. Some results are quoted in the Burlington Free Press unfortunately no link to the study was provided.

The research results put forward that the Catamount Health could save $1 million a year if the state had been running it exclusively rather than the private/public arrangement that exists.

Researchers suggested if the same state office that administers Medicaid and the Vermont Health Access Program also ran Catamount, administrative costs would decrease by about $1 million a year.

Peter Sterling, executive director of the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security Education Fund, called the researchers’ finding significant: “We have overpaid at least $2 million to let private insurance do what the state could have done.”

Utilities of Skeptics

Changes are coming fast and furious to parts of the utility industry in the US.The stirrings of a nuclear power renaissance (fueled by federal loan guarantees), carbon trading credits, wind power and smart grid initiatives are regularly in the news. However, attitudes in the industry may not be open to change. A new survey of the utility industry offers some interesting insights into their collective mind. This science and technology driven business apparently contains many who seriously doubt the science of climate change.

The survey found that 44% don’t believe global warming is caused by human activity . They note that in a 2009 Gallup poll, 57% of Americans believed global warming exists and is man made.

Earth2tech points out this utility respondent comment from the survey: “The energy industry needs to unite and fight the ridiculous ‘consensus’ science of AGW [Anthropogenic Global Warming]. This is not science as anyone with scientific and engineering training understands, but it is power politics.”

The industry may see climate change as bringing new waves of what are seen as troublesome rules and regulations. Strange though, that the very science based industry which might be a source for innovation and creativity in solving global warming challenges may be home for climate change deniers.

In a survey of over 300 utility industry participants, in response to the question: “Do you personally believe that fundamental, long-term global warming is taking place, or are we simply in a cyclical period of warming that is the result of the earth’s natural cycles?” — 39 percent of utility respondents said that they believe the earth is on a fundamental long-term warming trend, while 54 percent believe that we are in a cyclical warming period, and 7 percent responded that they don’t believe in global warming.