There’s a lot of discussion around lately about why and how the momentum to curb climate change is losing favor with the public. Some cite the economy and a lowering of priority for long term headaches like global warming. Others blame Climategate and the success of deniers to capitalize with their message against isolated data stumbles of this kind. Yet others cite the general public’s confusion between weather and climate and the horrible, wet, cold winter much of the US population experienced this year.

But the complex reasons for this probably also include the simple fact that the effort is so herculean, the consequences so daunting and the amount of energy and science and media focused on climate change and what to do about it over the past few years has just worn people down. When we’re all worrying about banks failing and keeping our jobs, we need a break from thinking about the end of the world.

Our guess is that after a brief break and once employment figures improve and the economy is more secure, the message about reducing CO2 and waste and finding new renewable energy resources will resonate with the vast majority once again. But we can’t stop fighting to make that happen, and perhaps a few good news stories about breakthroughs in clean technology here and there will help.

Here’s a link to the FT’s take on this and the Gallup poll released last week http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/2010/03/12/why-is-the-public-cooling-on-climate-change/