The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has brought up offshore drilling and the government's role in the policy towards energy and the entire industry. The environment in this year's primaries is a hot topic issue for voters. This issue is especially salient in those states in the southern parts of The United States of America where the oil spill by British Petroleum has severely altered many people's life on a daily basis. A lot of citizens are thus concerned about what they will do in the future because a lot of people who make a living off of fishing and the Gulf's ecosystem have not been able to fish do to all the oil and chemicals and pollutants in the water.

The first poll I found was taken between May 13-16, 2010 that was asking 1,002 adults from telephone interviews what national issue that congress should act on. Priorities for congress that these adults in the sample panned out in the order from most important to least important, the job situation (81%), the country's energy needs (57%), immigration policy (59%), financial regulation (54%), climate change (32%). What the Pew Research Center shows by doing these polls is that the number two most important issue that citizens believe the government should be working on is the country's energy needs. Climate change was also on the top five list which is significant that two different environment issues are needed to be eagerly dealt with.

Another poll done between June 10-13, 2010 I found by the Pew Research Center involving 1,010 adults in telephone interviews, asks people what they believe the United States Government should do in regard to offshore drilling. 31% said they believe the government should expand drilling, 35% wished to allow offshore drilling but ban the development of new wells, 22% said that all offshore drilling should be banned, and 12% didn't know. People you can then conclude that due to the situation in the gulf, one of the countries most salient issues they want congress to deal with, people want the government to get more involved in the surveillance and monitoring of mining and drilling for resources in deep water.

Public Opinions on GLobal Warming Have Changed Little Over the Past Few Years

Our teacher Dr. Gelbman e-mailed this article to me today with enthusiasm about the results. I was as well intrigued by the results that ended up coming out of the research. What I was most intrigued with was how divided the two different parties are in terms of what their opinions on global warming is, what they believe is the cause of it, and the confusion of whether or not the scientific community believes global warming is actually occurring.

In a recent poll done by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, with interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, have yeilded opinions among adults has changed very little on global warming. In terms of the number of people who believe it exists or is caused by humans. The poll was conducted between October 13-18, 2010 among 2,251 adults age 18 or older living in the continental United States. The researches used 1,487 respondents on a landline telephone, 764 people on a cell phone, 311 of those who did not own a landline.

59% of adults said that there is solid evidence that the Earth's average temperature has been getting warmer over the past few decades, compared to 57% who said this in October 2009. 34% say that global warming is occurring mostly because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, compared to 36% who said this in October 2009. These results are interesting to see how stable this opinion poll can be. 32% said that global warming is a very serious problem while 31% say it is somewhat serious. In October 2009, 35% of people said that it was very serious and 30% said it was somewhat serious. This is astounding to see such similarities and consistency in public opinion polls a year apart from each other.

What I found most interesting in the results was that 79% of Democrats say there is solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been increasing over the past few decades, and 53% of Democrats also believe that the Earth is warming mostly because of human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels. Conversely, the Republican stance on the issue is much the opposite. 38% of Republicans agree that the Earth is warming and 16% of them say that it is due to human activity. 53% of Republicans sat there is no solid evidence of global warming. Again all of these results and patters are little changed from a year ago.

Recent updates and maybe some new questions?

I have found some interesting new information regarding my topic of renewable energy this semester. I love looking at how people tend to be skeptical of the idea and maybe don't see the full potential of it's capability. There were two telephone polls taken by the Pew Research Center that show something I have yet to see. They asked 1,010 people who were reached with both landlines and cell lines, whether or not they would favor, oppose, or refused or didn't know, on a comprehensive energy bill in congress, demanding tougher efficiency standards for buildings and major appliances. 78% favored that, with 17% opposing, and 5% didn't know or refused introducing the bill. 

Now usually this being conducted as a telephone poll there would be all sorts of factors that you could apply in order to interpret the poll with bias factors. But what I found so interesting that another poll consisting of the same nature in topic as the previous one, was conducted by the Pew Research Center ten days later on June 24, 2010, yields eerily similar results. This poll was done with 1,802 people from landlines and cell phone lines, asking them to respond with whether they oppose or favor the government requiring that new homes and buildings meet higher efficiency standards. 78% said they would favor this, 18% said they would oppose, and 3% refused or didn't know. These numbers are almost identical to the previous poll results. They both showed 78% favored the idea of the government doing something to implement sources of sustainable, or renewable energy in two polls done ten days apart.

Now what does this say? Are we to mobilize and demand their be more government action with renewable energy implementation in society? Do we propose a constitutional amendment to the Constitution about renewable energy ONLY to be used in society? 

Side notes

So there are some things that I am going to try and make sure of or rather avoid. As I was browsing through some polls done about renewable energy one about whether or not people would agree to have their home "retrofitted" to be able to utilize solar panels and such here. There is also a poll done asking people think it would benefit our national security is we switched from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources here.

What In both of these polls I noticed that they were done by telephone with about 1,000 people.  I always make sure that I take both of these polls results with a grain of salt. Reason being that telephone polls are not always the best in being an accurate representation of the population because of the inconsistency of the survey takers. People don't always want to be on the phone talking to strangers when they're eating dinner, or let alone stay on the phone long enough to hear them finish the question before hanging up on them.

Regardless, the results of the pole which was taken in 2006, asked people if they were more or less likely than a year ago to consider retrofitting your home to use solar, wind, or other renewable energy sources. I think the question is unnecessarily confusing. I don't think, or at least I wouldn't have, used the phrase asking whether they were more or less likely now than a year ago. Because unless they were referring to a specific incident like maybe whether or not they are more likely or not after hurricane Katrina to now consider retrofitting their home. But most people said they would just like to keep their house the same.

The other poll was asking how much they think it would benefit national security to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy source, on a scale from 1-10. Most people said it would highly benefit, but also take into account when you bring up national security in a survey in 2006, people will most likely answer in favor of their security, so I wasn't too surprised by the results.

So always keep in mind, I know I will, that when researching your topic don't put too much merit into those polls done on the internet, phone, or self administered surveys, because they may not always be the best representation of the the opinions of American people.