Among Americans, Anxiety about Global Warming is Rising Again

More than half of Americans—58 percent—say they worry “a great deal “ or “a fair amount “about global warming, according to results of a telephone poll just released by Gallup Politics, based in Princeton, New Jersey.

The survey—conducted among a random sample of 1,022 adults living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia between March 7 and 10—found that concern in the United States about global warming is “heading back up after several years of expanded public skepticism.”

Indeed, the number of Americans who are anxious about the environment is up from 51 percent established by Gallup in 2011—but still below the 62 percent to 72 percent that the research organization has seen in earlier years.  The average over time has been about 60 percent, similar to the latest results.

Among respondents to the most recent poll, 20 percent said they worry “only a little” and 23 percent that they are “not at all” concerned.

A Current Event?

The same poll finds that 54 percent of Americans think that they already see the effects of global warming. This also matches the average in Gallup trends on this measure since 1997. The low points were recorded in 1997 and 2011, when less than half thought global warming's effects were already manifested. The high point was recorded in 2008, at 61 percent.

This year's percentage represents a slight increase from the lows reached just a couple of years ago—no surprise, following the dramatic weather events the U.S. has been subject to during the past year.

Fewer Americans (41 percent) than in the recent past think that news about global warming is “generally exaggerated” —down from 48 percent in 2010, the all-time high. But the number of respondents who think that  journalists may be overstating the threat remains above the long-term average of 36 percent.

The majority of Americans continue to believe news on the subject is either generally correct (24 percent) or underrates the gravity of the issue (33 percent).

Belief in Scientific Consensus

Americans this year are also more likely to believe there is scientific consensus about global warming— mirroring the increase in worry about global warming since 2011. Fully 62 percent now say that scientists think global warming is real— a nearly full return to pre-2010 attitudes.

Accordingly, fewer Americans today think the long-term increase in the Earth's average temperature is caused by natural changes in the environment, rather than by human activities. Currently, 57 percent of Americans say global warming is the direct result of human activities—up from 50 percent in 2010, although still slightly lower than the all-time high of 61 percent in 2007.

Even in light of the evidence, however, the majority of Americans do not believe global warming will pose a serious threat to them in their own lifetime. The 34 percent who do think they are in danger correlate to the historical average since 1997.

Thus, there has been no increase over time in the percentage of Americans who expect to be seriously affected.

Bottom Line

Gallup trends throughout the past decade— and some stretching back to 1989 — have shown generally consistent majority support for the idea that global warming is real, that human activities cause it, and that news reports on it are correct, if not underestimated.

But those views have shown significant variability.

Americans' concerns about global warming peaked at points in the late 1980s and the late 1990s, and again between 2006 and 2008, possibly related to strong environmentalist campaigns to raise awareness of the issue at those times —including the release of former Vice President Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" in 2006.

Conversely, concerns receded in 2009 and 2010, particularly among Republicans and conservatives, corresponding with a flurry of publicity alleging that scientists had reason to doubt that global warming is caused by human activities, as well as some controversy about global warming research. With all of this dying down somewhat in the last few years, attitudes are returning to previous levels, putting them near long-term averages.

In contrast to majority acceptance of global warming as real, Gallup finds Americans less than alarmed. One-third worry "a great deal," and 34 percent expect it to threaten their way of life. These could be the attitudes that matter most when it comes to U.S. support for public policies designed to address the issue.

A forthcoming Gallup analysis will examine trends on attitudes toward global warming by partisanship.