October 22, 2009
Fewer Americans View Global Warming as a Problem
About 35 percent of Americans see global warming as a very serious problem, down from about 44 percent in April of 2008, according to a new consumer survey from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
About 57 percent of the 1,500 adults surveyed from Sept. 30 through Oct. 4 think there is solid evidence that the Earth is getting warmer, compared to 71 percent who said that in April of 2008.
Only 36 percent attribute global warming to human activity, compared to 47 percent in April 2008.
The decline is evident across party lines, as evidenced in the chart to the left.
Despite the decline in global warming believers, there remains more support for cap-and-trade policies on carbon emissions. Half of respondents favor cap-and-trade, while 39 percent oppose it.
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Reader Comments
The wheels are coming off man-made global warming theory — as preached by the United Nations. There’s been no global warming for a decade, according to the BBC, New York Times and Christian Science Monitor (links follow). The UN’s climate scientists are back-pedaling like crazy. One of their own even says we are looking at another decade of cooling.
Frankly, I don’t see the majority of Americans supporting cap-and-trade or any CO2 regulation until we have our own ‘Climate Truth Commission.’ …and no longer rely upon the climate opinions of the United Nations. Outsourcing climate science to the UN makes no sense. The UN is more concerned about politics and funding than science. Plus, UN forecasts for the last 10 years do not fit what actually happened. The United States needs our own objective, transparent climate commission to think-through global warming.
– Robert Moen, http://www.energyplanUSA.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299079.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/science/earth/23cool.html?_r=3&em
http://features.csmonitor.com/discoveries/2009/10/10/biggest-news-youve-never-heard-earth-isnt-warming/
Rmoen | October 22nd, 2009
Set apart the climate change as manifested in unpredictable seasons, drying up water sources, prolonged droughts and devastating floods, ice-melting and more, just to think of the sky in Beijing, human-made climate change might need no further evidence. Polluting toxic chemicals is comparable to the smoking habit that is detrimental to human health. And the numerous intractable diseases are almost certainly due to the toxic chemicals.
Breathing toxic chemicals in the outdoor air exposes all Americans to a lifetime cancer risk at least 10 times greater than the level considered acceptable under federal law, shows data released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Beyond, provided the average temperature is getting higher, accordingly all forms of germs, bacterias, viruses, and influenza etc are more likely to multiply.
Some skeptics say the warning against hazards of climate change is overstated, but judging from more frequent and widespread outbreaks of e. coli, salmonella, and bird, swine flu cases endangering human lives and economic recovery seriously, some prompt measures need to be taken, I guess.
hsr0601 | October 23rd, 2009
Does this mean that the right wing republican media machine is working? All the more reason to counter with science, reason and reality, just louder!
Gail Murphy | October 23rd, 2009
Language is everything. Global Warming has been proven to be controversial when used to describe global climate change. I’d be very curious to know just how different these stats would be if they had used the term “climate change”.
Matthew Rochte, Opportunity Sustainability | October 23rd, 2009
How does something like this happen?
Nancy Schneider | October 23rd, 2009
How does this happen?… Better propaganda from the oil industry. The only wheels I want to see off is on emission spewing cars, and trucks. Global Warming is, at this point, referred to Climate Crisis. Droughts, flooding, squalls, sea level rise, storm intensity increase, heat events, and so on. Look beyond just our borders in other parts of the world that are experiencing weather events as never before.
Stop listening to the politicians and the hate mongers on the Fox channel and listen to the scientists and the farmers.
Nancy Schneider | October 23rd, 2009
Ya’ think? It’s already snowing in the midwest and the north this fall and it’s not even Halloween. There’s been ONE single hurricane this season that barely touched the upper east coast of the US, although typhoons have done some damage in the AP region. It’s the 24/7, ‘we must talk about something’ mentality generated by the media. Global warming is nothing more.
Dave | October 23rd, 2009
Americans are missing the danged point. It’s not about whether you “believe” in global warming. It’s about risk management. You buy car insurance. You buy fire insurance. Based on what? What are you, some sort of chicken little alarmist over these minuscule risks? No, you are a competent risk manager. Risk management is a conservative invention. So why aren’t our so called conservatives about employing it with respect to the increasingly credible possibility that greenhouse gas emissions have negative consequences? A grown-up conservative would be. Where are our grown-up conservatives in this country? The whole world wonders.
Charles Ashurst | October 25th, 2009
The Pacific Northwest had all-time record high temps this past summer, but that’s not why I agree with the theory behind global warming. Climate and weather are two different things. When people dismiss the *very clear* long-term trend of increasing global temperatures, they’re confusing weather with climate. If we can’t get past that simple distinction, then how are we going to talk intelligently about this issue? And as far as the first commenter’s points are concerned: the sources you are referring to are taking an unusually hot year (like 1998) and comparing it with an unusually cold year (2007). That kind of cherry-picked data says absolutely nothing about the long-term climate trend. And, finally, who cares about the UN? Do you honestly think that the UN has any clout on the world stage? Give me a break.
KB | October 26th, 2009
Wow. We spent the last week supporting 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action to raise awareness of the urgent need to reverse the CO2 trend (we are now at 387 and 350 is sited as the high side of the safe zone). And, Huffington Post just promoted a week-long zero impact week where participants went on a major carbon diet. It’s so hard to imagine that this report could be true. I’m hopeful it has more to do with the ‘warming’ wording than anything.
Brooke | October 27th, 2009