A Poll of Readers

[Update - this superb NY Times piece explains what might be going on politically: The Opiate of Exceptionalism ]

Last week, I was astonished to read that a Monmouth University poll showed that from 72 – 79% of NJ residents rate the “quality of the environment in the area that you live” as “excellent” or “good” (see: “Environmental Quality – Polls Versus Facts“).

What explains this high rating? What explains what appears to be a contradiction between perception and reality? Are people’s opinions always right? (i.e. perception is reality? That people no longer care about or live in the “reality based community”? That facts don’t matter and are always biased partial depictions of reality?)

This is a serious question – I’ve thought about it and have my own possible explanations (which are embedded in the leading questions below):

1) Is it because people “live” locally and always have a positive view of the “area that they live”?

2) Is it due to simple lack of facts and knowledge on how to evaluate environmental quality?

3) Is it the result of a narrow definition of what constitutes the “environment”?

4) is it because the air ...

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WolfeNotes will focus on important stories that are being ignored or misrepresented by the media. I’ll do traditional muckraking to hold the bad guys accountable; expose the lies and self serving spin of government officials and politicians; and explore how the failures of government, media, AND well meaning environmental organizations contribute to the problems we face.