Richard Cowan, PlanetArk 12 Mar 10;
A growing number of Americans, nearly half the country, think global warming worries are exaggerated, as more people also doubt that scientific warnings of severe environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup poll.
The new doubts come as President Barack Obama is pressuring the Congress to produce legislation significantly cutting smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for climate change problems.
With congressional elections less than eight months away, many lawmakers are hesitant to take on a controversial energy and environment bill, especially if voter interest is waning.
Amid eroding public sentiment and in response to escalating attacks from global warming skeptics, the Union of Concerned Scientists on Thursday released a letter they said was signed by more than 2,000 climate scientists and economists, including some Nobel prize winners, urging the Senate to pass a bill.
"The strength of the science on climate change compels us to warn the nation about the growing risk of irreversible consequences ... as temperatures rise further, the scope and severity of global warming impacts will continue to accelerate," they wrote.
The Gallup poll, conducted March 4-7, indicates a reversal in public sentiment on an issue that not only involves the environment, but also economic and national security concerns.
Forty-eight percent of Americans now believe that the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated, up from 41 percent last year and 31 percent in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question.
The result comes on the heels of well-publicized reports that some of the details of scientific findings that went into international global warming reports were either flawed or exaggerated.
But supporters of an aggressive global effort to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels argue that while scientists need to be more fastidious in their research, the overwhelming evidence supports the theory that a warming planet will lead to dangerous ice melting, flooding, drought, refugee problems and the spread of disease.
The United States has made a non-binding pledge to the world to seek a 17 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020, from 2005 levels, mostly by switching to more expensive alternative energy, such as wind and solar power.
But without legislation from Congress, that goal is unlikely to be met.
The Gallup poll of slightly more than 1,014 adults has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 4 percent.
A majority still believes global warming is real but that percentage is falling, with the average American now less convinced than at any time since 1997.
Thirty-five percent said in the latest poll that the effects of global warming either will never happen (19 percent) or will not happen in their lifetimes (16 percent). The 19 percent figure is more than double from 1997, Gallup said.
A growing number of Americans are doubting that global warming is related to human activities: 50 percent now blame human activities and 46 percent blame natural changes in the environment, such as fluctuations in the sun's intensity or the fallout from volcanic eruptions.
That compares with 61 percent and 33 percent respectively in 2003, Gallup said.
(Editing by Anthony Boadle)
Nearly half of Americans believe climate change threat is exaggerated
US belief in climate science lowest since polling began 13 years ago, with 31% saying the threat is 'definitely' a reality
Suzanne Goldenberg, guardian.co.uk 11 Mar 10;
Public belief in climate science has seen a precipitous slide in the US, according to new polling that suggests fewer Americans are concerned about the threat posed by global warming.
Nearly half of Americans – 48% – now believe the threat of global warming has been exaggerated, the highest level since polling began 13 years ago, the poll published today by Gallup said.
It directly linked the decline in concern to the controversies about media coverage of stolen emails from the University of East Anglia climate research unit and a mistake about the Himalayan glaciers melting by 2035 in the UN's authoritative report on global warming.
"These news reports may well have caused some Americans to re-evaluate the scientific consensus on global warming," Gallup said.
Half of Americans now believe there is a scientific consensus on climate change. Some 46% believe scientists are unsure about global warming, or that they believe it is not occurring. A UK poll last month showed adults who believe climate change is "definitely" a reality had dropped from 44% to 31% over the past year.
"The last two years have marked a general reversal in the trend of Americans' attitudes about global warming," Gallup said. "It may be that the continuing doubts about global warming put forth by conservatives and others are having an effect."
The poll feeds into fears among some environmentalists that the furore over the hacked emails has given new fuel to opponents of action on climate change, and stopped short the momentum in Congress for passage of a clean energy law.
A troika of Senators trying to draft a compromise climate bill that could get broad support said this week they may not be able to produce a draft until after the Easter recess, further reducing the chances of enacting legislation in 2010.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration faces lawsuits from Virginia, Texas, Alabama and a dozen business lobbies challenging its authority to act on greenhouse gas emissions through the Environmental Protection Agency.
Tim Wirth, a former Colorado senator who led the campaign against acid rain, told a conference call the science squabbles resembled a re-run of efforts to discredit that earlier effort for an environmental clean-up.
He said the scientists who worked on the IPCC report were woefully outmanoeuvred in PR by business groups which have the funds to employ legions of lobbyists and communications experts. "It's not a fair fight," he said. "The IPCC is just a tiny secretariat next to this giant denier machine."
A majority of Americans continues to believe that climate change is real, but they are less convinced of its urgency. Only 32% believe they will be directly affected by the consequences of a warming atmosphere, despite a major report by the Obama administration last year that climate change could bring flooding, heat waves, drought and loss of wildlife to the US.
