. >> yeah, this is the gallup world poll. it's the first every scientific quality survey conducted in 130-plus countries around the world. it's a remarkable scientific achievement. and one of the things that it taught us right from the very beginning that, to be honest, surprised me, four out of ten people on planet earth have never heard of climate change. >> 40%? >> 40%. and in fact, when you look in particular countries, even countries that are kind of poster child countries for climate change like bangladesh, it rises to two-thirds of people have never heard of climate change. in some countries it's 75% have never heard of climate change. now, this doesn't mean, however, that they're not observing acutely the changes that are happening in their local systems. they are. what they lack is the concept of climate chance to make sense of the observations, the changes they're seeing in local temperature and precipitation patterns and so on, as well as the understanding of here's what this means going forward. how do we use this

. >>> according to gallup polling, americans are more pessimistic about this country now than at any time in the last half century. we're not alone in that thinking. the worldc forum places the u.s. as only the seventh fittest economy in the world. we're ranked 34th in primary education and health care. our macro economic environment is 111th. that cannot be right. our next guest says the notion that we're losing our competitive edge is widespread and pervasive, it is not necessarily correct. ed mcbride is the washington bureau chief for the author of the special ro on america competitiveness. welcome, sir. >> thank you for having me. >> would you like to tell me, and i welcome the message that things are not as bleak as we've been told. please. talk us off the ledge. >> well, as you said, there is a the love hand wringing, a lot of reports. these dire statistic that's seem so dreadful. it is almost impossible to remember they're true. 111th? that's to do with the size of the national debt basically. but what all these gloomy sort of hand wringing accounts neglect, they focus on washington and on gridlock and on the failure to resolve all the questions abou