Comments on climate change articles show vast differences in readership

The latest news on climate change comes from the upcoming release of the latest IPCC report. Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have covered this news, and the take in both articles is roughly the same: just the pertinent information.

But go to the comments following the articles and one gets a vastly different, perhaps polar opposite, point of view on the articles. While the comments on the Times article are somewhat lengthy and thoughtful, and virtually all in agreement as to the forthcoming dangers of climate change, the comments on the Journal article are mostly short, pithy and, if not outright denialist, reflect more the writers' fears of big government, higher taxes and United Nations control, with a handful of Al Gore bashing thrown in for good measure.

Comments are also revealing on the USA Today article (a free-for-all, often snarky give-and-take on Facebook, more or less evenly divided on anthropogenic climate change), BBC (surprisingly mixed), CNN (similar to USA Today, though not on Facebook), TIME (leans toward denialism), and the Washington Post (political, surprisingly snarky, perhaps 50-50 on man-made climate change).

What does it say about our country when science is held in so little regard?

— LP