Is the Public this Easily Swayed?

I saw at Pajamas Media that Michael Crichton a href=”http://www.pjmedia.com/2007/03/crichton_debates_global_warmin.php”won a recent debate /aagainst global warming advocates:br /br /blockquoteThe Global Warming skeptics team led by Michael Crichton defeated the Global Warming advocates led by Brenda Ekwurzel in a debate moderated by Brian Lehrer before a live audience in New York City. Before the debate the organizers polled 57.32% to 29.88% in favor of Global Warming, but after the debate the numbers flipped to 46.22% to 42.22% in favor of the skeptics./blockquotebr /br /I am certainly glad that Crichton and his colleagues changed some minds at the debate but it makes me wonder, “Isn’t it kind of astounding that such a high percentage of people changed their minds about global warming over emone/em debate?” It makes me wonder what happens when emAn Inconvenient Truth /emis a href=”http://technocrat.net/d/2007/2/2/14259″shown in schools /a without any scientists or experts on the other side to balance out the views of global warming advocates. If adults can change their mind this quickly when given another view of global warming or perhaps any political message for that matter, then what does it do to kids to give them one side of an issue without emequally/em presenting the other side?