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Growing Number of Americans See Warming as Leading Threat
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Public doubt that there is a scientific consensus on global warming has dipped since last year, but it still contrasts with the growing evidence that climate change is real and is caused by human activity.
Charlotte Stewart, who works for a title company and lives in Terre Haute, Ind., said she believes researchers are divided because when she looks around online, "you see one person saying it's a problem, you see another person saying it's not a problem." But, Stewart added, unstable weather in her own area has convinced her that climate change is happening.
"I'm 51 years old. I don't see myself as old, but just in the short time I've been around I can see it as a problem," she said.
The latest international assessment of climate change by more than 1,200 scientists, published two weeks ago by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, concluded with "high confidence" that human-generated emissions are triggering observable changes in ecosystems on land and sea.
Americans are also split on what causes global warming in the first place: 41 percent say the temperature rise stems mainly from human activities -- a 10-percentage-point increase from last year -- and 42 percent attribute it about equally to human and natural causes.
After global warming, respondents were most likely to raise air pollution as the "single biggest" environmental problem -- cited by 13 percent. No other concern was identified by more than 6 percent in the open-ended question.
Nearly nine in 10 said warming will be a serious problem if nothing is done to curb it, but nearly two-thirds thought that a "great deal" or a "good amount" can be done to reduce global warming's effects.
And people are not relying only on the government: Most say they would be willing to personally change some things they do in order to mitigate climate change, even if it involves some sacrifice. Nearly three-quarters said they have already made an effort to reduce energy consumption at home; seven in 10 said they already use at least one compact fluorescent light bulb, a type of bulb that uses very little electricity.
The Post-ABC News-Stanford poll was conducted by telephone April 5-10 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults. Results have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
