Obama and Jintao focus net attention on the environment

President Barack Obama's November 17 meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao ahead of December's UN Climate Change Conference drove an increased worldwide interest in environmental topics, according to the Nielsen Company's Blogpulse analysis.

Interest in the topic of 'Obama' rose by 50% between November 14 and 16, as did the buzz surrounding the word 'China'. Mentions of the word 'environment' followed the same upward motion with generated interest increasing by a third.

All three trendlines dropped off at the same time: by November 20, interest in the words 'environment' and 'China' converged, and Obama's buzz had dropped off sharply.

At that point, neither topic had fallen below their pre-November 14 levels, and interest levels regarding both UN heads of state and environmental topics are expected to climb as December 7-18's Climate Change Conference approaches.