You'll find huge budgeted projects examining public attitudes toward climate, doing focus groups, studying "framing," the use of language, symbolism, metaphor ... blah, blah, blah. But what about the simple fact that climate is quite possibly THE most boring subject the science world has ever had to present to the public?
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/global-warming-and-the-tyranny-of-boredom/