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.