Graph of the Day: Public Acceptance of Climate Change on Rebound
March 5, 2012
As 2012 begins, a growing number of Americans believe global warming is occurring. This is one of the key findings from the latest National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change (NSAPOCC).
- More Americans than ever are pointing to experiences with warmer temperatures as the main reason they believe global warming is occurring.
- For Americans who believe that climate change is occurring, factors beyond weather (such as: declining polar species) appear to be having the greatest effect on convincing an individual that the planet is warming.
- Nearly 80% of Democrats believe in global warming, while Republicans are almost evenly split with 47% seeing evidence of increasing global temperatures.Download paper here
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
March 5, 2012 at 2:13 pm
I’m sure the Climate Movement community will quickly point to journalists everywhere out that one mild winter does not mean the climate is warming, just as they always pointed out that one, then two, then three harsh winters did not mean the climate was cooling… right?
March 5, 2012 at 2:19 pm
I love how the same folks who insist a couple hundred years of temperature proxies and ice core and coral reef core samples aren’t evidence the planet is warming want to insist that a snow storm means no warming.
March 5, 2012 at 2:42 pm
One warm’ish winter and all of a sudden the climate is changing (but perhaps only in America)
Fact is GMT has been flat to flat / down the last 15 years; so AGW appears to be stalled at minimum or a nonevent at all.
If the MSM presented all the facts the sheeple might have a different view.
March 5, 2012 at 2:55 pm
The deniers are half right-there has been warming and cooling over the millenniums caused by natural events. What they don’t seem to want to acknowledge is how anthropologically caused warming has begun to supersede the natural cycles of warming and cooling that occur over both short and long time periods. So it’s a bit disingenuous to use the very short term local weather events as “proof” of either warming or cooling. If a short term cooling event that brings a load of snow to the northern US occurs next winter, popular opinion will likely shift the other way. I fear the only thing that will bring enough people around to effect real political change will be some major catastrophic event, and we can only hope that by then it won’t be too late to do anything about it.
March 5, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Well Peter, you seem to be getting a broader readership going now. That is encouraging.
Of course this past winter does little to show that GW is occurring, and it is a bit distressing that American opinion seems to bounce around with the latest weather forecast. We can expect is next winter is particularly cold (like Europe’s this year) that American belief in GW will once more decline. That, however, says little about whether GQ is occurring, and a lot about how little Americans really know about science and the evidence for GW. If the media did a better job educating instead of sensationalizing, perhaps we could build a truly educated consensus.
Brian
March 5, 2012 at 3:30 pm
I think there’s evidence that people understand it is not just temperature or snow, but the increased incidence of extremes that we are seeing, that are evidence of climate change.
March 5, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Jeff,
What a sorry talking point that “it’s not warming any more” thing has gotten to be.
Thanks for trotting out a moldy oldy. At least you didn’t try the “volcanoes emit more CO2 than we do” one.
March 5, 2012 at 7:40 pm
It’s crazy that action on ACC is dependent on anyone’s belief, given that it is empirical (and an awful lot of statistical/probabilistic) evidence of global warming that has led to the international consensus. Unfortunately, in a country so dominated by religious zealots and television, belief is king and proof one of many princes.
People have been conditioned to think that science and the logical processes that it instils in one are no more than another creed rather than an alternative or complementary behaviour, which encourages individualism and cognitive free-thinking (rather than emotional or volitional [both of which are often led by the will of others]).
The mass of droll television programmes, many of which convince people that science helps prove things, have a lot to answer for given that they have led people to (wrongly) believe that science functions as a judge or arbiter of truth – a role that many believe once was (or still is) the domain of (their) God alone.
Personally, I have struggled with and now largely reject tv shows that portray scientists, because as far as I have seen they do not talk in probabilities or weight of evidence, but in absolutes, which are for the most part absent from science.
Like many scientists (I have a Masters, though at present I do not work in a scientific field), were I to be presented with clear and convincing evidence of the existence of a supreme being (or even aliens, UFO’s, Bigfoot or anything else where belief or faith are essential for their propagation) or clear and overwhelming evidence that the current warming of the climate was entirely natural and beyond our control, I would happily proclaim it to the rooftops. Some scientists are religious, but even then they are aware of the distinction between their faith or belief system and their science. For them the two are not mutually exclusive. It’s a shame that so many others cannot appreciate this.
March 5, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Reblogged this on manoffireandlight and commented:
It’s crazy that action on ACC is dependent on anyone’s belief, given that it is empirical (and an awful lot of statistical/probabilistic) evidence of global warming that has led to the international consensus. Unfortunately, in a country so dominated by religious zealots and television, belief is king and proof one of many princes.
People have been conditioned to think that science and the logical processes that it instils in one are no more than another creed rather than an alternative or complementary behaviour, which encourages individualism and cognitive free-thinking (rather than emotional or volitional [both of which are often led by the will of others]).
The mass of droll television programmes, many of which convince people that science helps prove things, have a lot to answer for given that they have led people to (wrongly) believe that science functions as a judge or arbiter of truth – a role that many believe once was (or still is) the domain of (their) God alone.
Personally, I have struggled with and now largely reject tv shows that portray scientists, because as far as I have seen they do not talk in probabilities or weight of evidence, but in absolutes, which are for the most part absent from science.
Like many scientists (I have a Masters, though at present I do not work in a scientific field), were I to be presented with clear and convincing evidence of the existence of a supreme being (or even aliens, UFO’s, Bigfoot or anything else where belief or faith are essential for their propagation) or clear and overwhelming evidence that the current warming of the climate was entirely natural and beyond our control, I would happily proclaim it to the rooftops. Some scientists are religious, but even then they are aware of the distinction between their faith or belief system and their science. For them the two are not mutually exclusive. It’s a shame that so many others cannot appreciate this.
March 5, 2012 at 9:39 pm
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