More from alarmist journalist Tom Yulsman: Al Gore versus George Will

Will’s column was, as many people have already pointed out, a howler in its entirety. Gore’s speech, by contrast, was mostly defensible, with the exception of one significant error...

Liberal democrats desert climate in droves | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

Most striking, support for environmental protection by liberal Democrats dropped 17 percent, from 74 to 57 percent, roughly the same rate as Republicans, down 19 percent, and independents, at 15 percent, and significantly higher than the 9 percent drop among moderate Democrats.

If environmentalism is best advanced within the rubric of progressive politics and global warming is most effectively communicated through optimistic messages addressed to the general public, then why were we just abandoned in droves by liberal Democrats and why, in a year of upbeat news about "green jobs," did public support continue to nosedive?

A new chart, Selected US Global Warming Trends 2004-2009, presents the Pew poll data against two measures of media attention to climate and the frequency of Google searches for "global warming." Though not statistically valid, the comparison does tend to indicate a correlation between media coverage and public curiosity and concern. Most interestingly, the surge in media attention occasioned by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth begins to decline just as bolstering scientific news -- particularly release of the IPCC 4th Report and dramatic, visceral evidence as a Northwest passage opens for the first time -- is released.

More on that Northwest Passage claim

The Northwest Passage was successfully navigated in 1906, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1957, 1969, 1977, 1984, 1988, and 2000 (and probably in other years as well).