I first became aware of this trend back in the 1980's when Ronald Reagan was president. Happily stuffed into the back pocket of the Republican Party (as well as the pocket of some democrats), powerful lobbyists working for the big energy companies were already starting to twist reality, convincing misguided conservative folks that environmentalists were evil. These lobbyists were even better than the tobacco lobbyists (who, as I recall, tried really hard to convince us that cigarettes did not cause cancer). All they needed to do was pay certain doctors and scientists insane amounts of money to twist the facts as convincingly as possible.
These tactics continue to work to this day. Apparently, the east coast snow storm was ample proof for Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and a number of republican politicians to proclaim that there is no such thing as global warming. Good grief! Global warming means just that - the trend that the entire planet is gradually warming. Averaging the temperature of the entire planet showed that the previous decade was the warmest on record. This average temperature is increasing despite parts of the world being really cold and SNOWY in the winter. Duh!!
This dumbing down of America is showing in other areas as well. The way things are going, I don't think it will be long before the state of Kansas outlaws science text books completely. Despite the fact that "intelligent design" is a religious belief and not actually a scientific theory, a large number of folks in Kansas want it placed side by side with "evolution". I find that extremely frightening. Soon the day will come when a child is asked to open his or her science text book and that child will be opening the bible. A science field trip will consist of a trip to the "Creation Museum" http://creationmuseum.org/ at which our children will learn all about how the earth is only 6,000 years old and that people used to live right along side dinosaurs just like Fred Flintstone. These kids can then grow up - no longer advancing technology and medicine. Illness will need to be cured with superstition and magic. Good luck with that, America.