Sure, the link between human behaviour and global warming has simmered in the science community and special interest groups since the 1970s (and longer for those counting). Yet, only since the 2000s has the science of climate change penetrated mainstream media.
But why? And what triggered an unspoken legitimacy of videos like these? Many would believe that global warming is beyond the oft-coined "tipping point"...but did the climate change issue really belong in the lump of the many tippping points that Gladwell talks about in the first place?
"In my recent conversations with peers in the science policy world (read "fellow geeks"), the same question has come up repeatedly of late: Why did global warming "tip"? How has the issue finally managed to go mainstream, so that even President Bush now seems on the verge of feeling its urgency?"
-Chris Mooney
Chris Mooney, author of the new book, Storm World, has a piece on Huffington Post today describing his thoughts on how global warming has moved into the spotlight as a major issue in America.
A Desmogblog Dispatch