Global warming: Do Americans care?

    

The Gallup poll has been asking Americans what they think about global warming for more than a decade. Is public concern increasing? One might think so, given the past year’s tsunami of scary climate science and the push to laws to control planet-heating greenhouse gases.

Not so, according to a survey of 1,021 adults questioned March 5 to 8.

Sixty percent of all those queried — down from 66% last year — say global warming is a problem they personally worried about either “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”

And a record high, 41% of those interviewed, believed the media “generally exaggerates” the seriousness of global warming. That was up from 35% last year, and only 30% in 2006.

Does the skepticism flow from the nation’s new economic gloom? If so, other environmental issues would presumably suffer equal drops. But the 2009 survey measured concern about eight specific environmental issues. “Not only does global warming rank last on the basis of the total percentage concerned either ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’, but it is the only issue for which public concern dropped significantly in the past year,” Gallup said. Concern over water pollution, toxics and rainforests, among other issues, remained stable.

What’s to make of this?

Because California has adopted the nation’s most sweeping plan to control greenhouse gases, we asked several of the state’s global warming experts to respond.

STATE SEN. FRAN PAVLEY (D-Agoura Hills), author of global warming legislation
    “The results of the poll were somewhat surprising," she said, suggesting that those who are less concerned may associate global warming with "the melting Arctic and the plight of the polar bear," rather than with climate-induced effects of "reduced water supply, salt water intrusion into aquifers, increased drought and wildfires, or the clear link of greenhouse gases and increased air pollution."
    Global warming, she said, will lead to "extreme heat events.... In 2005, 140 people died in California during several weeks of high temperatures, primarily residents of inland valleys and lower income areas that may not have had air conditioning. Research shows that hotter temperatures lead to increased smog and ozone levels."

TERRY TAMMINEN, Environmental advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

    "I think people’s bandwidth is a zero sum game -- if you’re increasingly concerned about something (your job, the economy overall, your mortgage -- all of which you previously didn’t think about at all), you have less sympathy to take other things quite as seriously.
    "More to the point, climate change is now ingrained in people’s minds -- ads on TV now talk about ways to reduce your carbon footprint without having to explain what that is, something that was not true just a year ago.
      "This is part of a long process -- like Goldilocks, we went from not caring enough, to perhaps caring too much, to 'just right' in the near future, but I have faith we’re on the right path!
      "As for the numbers, Churchill said it best -- there are lies, damn lies, and statistics!"


MARY D. NICHOLS, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, which is implementing the state's climate plan.
     “The scientific evidence of change is widespread,  but building slowly, over years -- not days or weeks. That kind of change is hard for most people to see or believe in.
      Some of the global warming deniers or skeptics who have been forced to accept the reality of change are still fighting against doing anything about it, blaming scientists for exaggerating the seriousness of the problem and claiming any proposals to cut emissions will be too costly.
      But most people understand that the measures needed to reduce the threat are good for our economy and reduce our dangerous dependence on imported oil."

ANN NOTTHOFF, California advocacy director, Natural Resources Defense Council
     "Over the past three years –- from 'An Inconvenient Truth' to the Nobel Peace Prize to the Supreme Court CO2 decision to the presidential campaign, and now to the Obama administration and congressional leadership -- the concern about global warming has gone from alarm to practical solutions. That’s good news. Americans don’t spend time 'worrying' about a problem, they start thinking about how to do something about it.
       People want clean air to breathe, safe water to drink and a safe environment. The science linking their daily health and global warming is increasingly strong.
This poll seems to measure reactions to media coverage rather than to the consequences of global warming.... [It] finds that solid majorities of the American public know that global warming is a real threat and problems are already manifest. Young people, looking to their future, are particularly concerned. That’s a strong public message to Congress to act now."

DOROTHY ROTHROCK, vice-president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Assn.

   "I will pass on this..."

--Margot Roosevelt

Comments

[Utah mortgage consultant]

Americans should care. They are one of the major contributors of the global warming. They should give much subsidy to all nations who are preserving the forests that help in descending the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmoshpere.

[Abel]

I feel proud I am from a state that a has adopted the nation’s most sweeping plan to control greenhouse gases. Many thanks to Margot Roosevelt for bringing much needed attention to this. The comments of ANN NOTTHOFF were on point and poignant . The Ella Baker Center just unveiled a groundbreaking new poll that proves that Californians are demanding green job investment now, check it out http://www.ellabakercenter.org/index.php?p=gcjc_green_jobs_poll

[Selam Teshome]

this is selam us u know and care this is serious issue and i think we have to prevent air pollition i think this problem affect each and every country so developed countiers have to reilize that this thing affects even them and they must not realse harmful gases in the atmosphere the have to change it in to non-harmful gases thank u.

[T Oswald]

Global warming may be a fact but the alarmists who often use the melting glaciers of the northern hemisphere as "proof" that man's C02 contribution is the source have not explained why the melting of the Alaskan Glacier Bay ice from 1794 to 1879 exhibited approximately the same melt rate as as during the most recent decades. Perhaps we are seeing a continuation of a warming trend that started at the end of the "little ice age". I doubt that man can be considered a measurable contributor.

[Earl_E]

More and more scientists and thinking people all over the world are wondering why it is so difficult to see that changing weather patterns impact our quality of life.

For it being so cold this winter it wasn't cold enough to kill off this invasion of some odd bug that took up residence all over my house and shed.

Our first walk of the year at the Nature Preserve a couple of weeks was alarming. Entire stands of pine trees uprooted, the kids played under the root balls, they thought it was neat.

I'm not sure how many more years of drought and high winds our trees can take.

And I think Obama will be too little, too late. Based on the other few comments here, there is a solid propaganda wing of the oil and coal companies that cut and pastes the 650 scientist, 30,000 scientists petition hogwash that really confuses people enough to think that they can continue to pollute the nest.

But I hope these pro-fossil folks all move to the 9th Ward.

[Luddhunter]

It is simply the ridiculous range of doom in the predictions. One day it's 17 inches of ocean rise in 90 years, the next day it's 75 feet in 5 years and we all die various horrible deaths (like by cannibalism, according to Ted Turner). The alarmists are in competition for the biggest headline, and can't keep their story straight. What they need is a better cult leader. Pope Gore's Church of Global Warming has people reading from too many unorthodox hymn sheets...a good Inquisition is what we need to get the apocalypse's facts straight, like the Book of Revelations....maybe someone should check for the 666 birthmark under Al's hair, but if he's the anti-Christ, his daddy Satan must be awful disappointed in this poll.

[AntonioSosa]

More and more scientists and thinking people all over the world are realizing that man-made global warming is a hoax that threatens our future and the future of our children. More than 650 international scientists dissented last year over the man-made global warming claims. They are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=2674e64f-802a-23ad-490b-bd9faf4dcdb7

Additionally, 32,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate…" http://www.petitionproject.org/index.html

"Progressive" (communist) politicians like Obama seem determined to force us to swallow the man-made global warming scam. We need to defend ourselves from the UN and these politicians, who threaten our future and the future of our children. Based on a lie, they have already wasted billions and plan to increase taxes, limit development, and enslave us.

If not stopped, the global warming scam will enrich the scammers (Gore and Obama’s Wall Street friends), increase the power of the U.N. and communists like Obama, and multiply poverty and servitude for the rest of us.

[George gieron]

Of course I'm a lot less worried about climate change now that Barack Obama is on the job.

[Jenesse Miller]

Thanks to Margot Roosevelt for bringing attention to this question, the Gallup poll numbers, and leading state environmentalists' reactions to both. I agree with Ann Notthoff's comment about the way the question was asked, and how it points more to the issues of trust between the media and the public than how the public truly feels about global warming. The California League of Conservation Voters' blog recently featured a post on this very issue. Read the post here: http://www.ecovote.org/blog/?p=544