Manufacturing Percent

Pierre Bourque has as one of his headlines today that "Three Quarters Believe Global Warming A 'Natural Occurence.'" Wow. I guess that lots of people don't believe we are causing global warming. But wait, what happens if I click through to the story? Well I read the third paragraph which tells me that:

"The online study [emphasis mine] which polled nearly 4000 votes found that a staggering 71 percent of people think that the rise in air temperature happens naturally."

So this valuable information was the result of an online poll?! Have these people ever heard of freeping? The resulting impression though created in the article and the headline probably falls in one of two categories (neither of which have any indication of being accurate):

• The average person is ignorant,

OR

• The theory that global warming is not man-made is gaining acceptance.

Neither of these is supported by the article and its "online study."