President Obama has made it clear that climate change is one of his top priorities. Recent polls show that he is out of step with the American people.According to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, out of 20 "top priority" issues, human-caused global warming ranked dead last. Crime, moral decline, and lobbyists (siblings, those three) outranked global warming. Moreover, a Rasmussen poll found that 44% of the public believes warming is due to long term planetary trends, 7% attribute it to some other reason, and 9% are unsure. Adding them up, it turns out that only 40% believe global warming is a result of human activities. In 2006, 46% of the people believed global warming was caused by humans, while 35% thought it was caused by natural phenomena. The trend has been favoring skepticism.
Sorry, Mr. Gore.
Unremarkably, 51% of Republicans believe planetary trends are the cause of global warming. Conversely, 44% of Democrats did not believe humans are causing global warming. Doesn't that seem a bit high? I figured that number would be below 10%.
It's clear that there is a healthy amount of skepticism out there. Is this a push back from the apocalyptic sirens of the media and the moral haranguing of politicians (like the aforementioned Al)?
[HT: Andrew Revkin]
