SAN FRANCISCO—While the evidence is clear that human-caused global warming is occurring and is a threat to many humans and other organisms on the planet, many Americans have been slow to buy the whole argument.

Yesterday at its annual meeting here, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest science organization in the world, issued a consensus statement that "global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now and is a growing threat to society,'' Earlier this month the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change issued a statement that global warming will "continue for centuries" and is "very likely caused by man."

While these statement may have changed public opinion in recent weeks, last year a joint poll between ABC News, Time, Stanford University and Ohio State University found that only 3 in 10 Americans believed that global warming is caused by humans. Less than 40 percent of the nation’s public called global warming is an immediate and serious problem.

"Americans are very much on the same wavelength with the scientific community about the basics of the issue," Jon Krosnick, professor of communication and of political science from Stanford University said during a talk here yesterday. "But they lack certainty" about how bad the problem really is.

The belief model

Amid the public uncertainty, data continues to pile up. The average global temperature last month was the highest for any January on record. Last year was a record warm year in the United States. The past nine years are all among the 25 warmest on record for the contiguous United States, a streak unprecedented in records dating back to 1896. Scientists say 2007 could be the warmest yet globally.

But there is a disconnect between what scientists know and what the public believes. In order for Americans to embrace an issue like climate change as a nationally serious concern, they first have to believe that the problem exists and that the results would be bad for people, Krosnick said.

“Most Americans believe that,” Krosnick said. However, they also have to be highly certain about the problem. “Only 7 percent are extremely sure of their views about climate change, another 25 percent are very sure and 41 percent only somewhat sure,” Krosnick said. “So there’s lots of room for potential increase in certainty.”

Krosnick's research finds scientists are frustrated. "They've been sounding alarm bells for over a decade, saying, ‘We have a really serious problem with the environment and we're destined for a train wreck down the road. How come nobody is listening?'"

Many scientists assume that the public doesn't understand or accept their work.

"That is wrong," Krosnick said. Most Americans believe the world has been heating up, probably as a result of human activity, and that this will be bad for people, he said. But because people lack absolute certainty, global warming does not arouse a constantly heightened level of public concern.

Additionally, Americans believe that unless they caused the problem, they should not interfere with what’s happening with the climate.

“So in other words, if Mother Nature is doing her thing, then we cope with it and don’t try to manipulate it,” Krosnick said “But if we damage nature then it’s our responsibility to undo it and it is, in fact, a national problem.”

Only 42 percent of Americans blamed climate change on people in last year's poll, Krosnick said.

And lastly, people aren’t willing to acknowledge something is a problem unless it can be fixed, because otherwise it’s just too upsetting.

Media's role

The role of scientists and media is not to be forgotten in affecting public opinion, Krosnick said. Good scientists always leave room for potential mistakes and doubt when reporting their work, but communicating their natural uncertainty can cause reservation in the public mind.

“When we ask people, 'Do you think scientific experts that study the climate mostly agree that the climate is heating up or do you think that there is a lot of disagreement,' 64 percent of Americans said that there is disagreement in the scientific community,” Krosnick said.

This false belief, Krosnick explained, seems to be tied to the efforts of the news media to tell a balanced story.

“Many of the stories have not only the mainstream scientific opinion on climate change but they also have some attention to the skeptics—four people, I guess, that make a good living doing this—and the skeptical point of view has more prominence in the media than it does in the scientific literature,” Krosnick said. “And that’s what’s contributing very importantly to this belief.”

Source

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I think it is partly it is due to the Bush Administration (probably the biggest reason) ....and the "control" they have over scientists and over the media..

I uploaded this video that came out in June 2006-- it seems to explain why
(also see the various related articles posted there in the video information )

Global Warming Cover Up

I heard Bill Nye say that the cause in temperature rise is natural, and just a cycle our planet goes through. It has to do with the Earth's magnetic field switching polarity or something.

Also I think people saying global warming is real would gain more crediability if they stopped saying anyone that doesn't agree with them are being paid off by big oil. For example, this exchange on Oprah.

Al Gore: Global warming is real and it's here.

Oprah: Well we have this climatologist here that says the contary.

Unnamed climatologist: Global warming is a naturally occuring event and will not harm the planet.

Al Gore: That scientist is wrong, and he is paid off by big oil.

Ok first of all, Al Gore is not a scientist, so I'm going to believe the climatologist by default . Secondly the scientist's name was never mentioned so how did Mr. Gore know he was being paid off by big oil? And even if he was, why even have him on the show if you had no intention of believing or refuting anything he said.

Bascially, it is in the way it is being presented. The truth is, it is probably another Y2K. That is not to say we shouldn't try to improve the environment, but telling everyone you will die if you don't and anyone that disagrees is a patsy for corporations probably isn't the way they should be doing it.

Yeah, Global Warming is natural - just look at the sun cycles between 1996 and 2006, major fluctuations in the sun, and yes Earth goes through hot and cold periods. However The speed of global warming is due to man, the CO2 blanketing the earths atmosphere traps heat (heat from the sun bounces off the earth and out of our atmosphere, keeping earth wet and not a flame ball) but due to the fact that we are releasing tons upon tons of CO2 from pollution and fossil fuels, that heat trapped in our atmosphere messes with our weather patterns - Weather is determined via differing temperatures ect - so although Global Warming is a natural event, in our present case it is not natural because it came far to fast and there is a lot of evidence that we are the cause of 'hurrying' it along.

I personally don't have any problem "believing" in the whole global warming thing... think about it people, there are 6 billion people in the world ok, well lets say that half of them own a car and drive it every day. Thats 3 billion vehicles that are spewing out fossil fuel gasses, How can that be good(not exactly sure how many cars are on the planet and everything just a rough estimate)? Even the car companies realize this. Hence the production of hybrid cars and such. People just love to find stuff to complain about, hell I'm even doing it here. So no matter how much Credibility someone has or what someone says it's not gonna matter because somebody somewhere will dissagree.

Americans are so skeptical that we're already in an agreement to cut emissions? Curious how that works.

We're just not part of the failing Kyoto agreement because it was designed basically to impact our country.

Maybe like me, a lot of Americans are too self centred. Hey it isn't going to change my life but, being more 'Eco-friendly' would cost me more than the small benefit is worth. So I buy a hybrid car. 1- too small to haul feed, so would only drive it once a month for groceries and continue using my truck for weekly feed runs. 2- not economically sound, it won't save enough on gas to pay for itself before I would need to replace it. So not going to do that. Recycle, sure then have to drive 40 miles to get it all to a center every week, nope and no curbside is not here. Bottom line global warming may be real, but it isn't going to affect my life - I'll be dead first so, I'm not going to change at my expense for some may be man made catastrophe a few centuries from now.

Al Gore may not be a scientist but thats where he gets his information from.

I think I will beleive the 2000 scientists of all kinds from 40 different nations that pooled their resources together to tell us if we don't change our ways we're screwed. Hell even Exxon Mobile admits that global warming as a result of mans irresponsibility is the real deal.

In reality the debate as to whether or not human are adversly effecting the enviroment is over. People however are stubborn and don't want to take responsibility. Especially Americans though for some reason seem to be stubborn and sherk the blame on everything else. Not all americans but mostly those who don't want to except that it has basically been proven via the data.



How about this anyone who disagrees is poorly educated on the issue and ignorant to the facts. The vast majority of scientists all agree that we are the biggest factor in global warming, the only one who go against them are those who have the most to lose. Oil companies and manufacturers are simply not wanting to have to spend money to fix the problem and convert to green technology.


If money is all people care about then we are dead already.... Obviously you don't worry about your kids or grandkids and what kind of place it's gonna be for them.

basically been proven? yea basically is 90% not 100%.

we have influenced it and sped it up, we didnt cause "global warming". big misunderstanding.

Strangely evidence points to the contary from the vast majority of climnate scientists.
it is 95% or over btw for it to be confident of its correctness.

Nah ya know what you people who don't think global warming isn't happening are right. We aren't causing it... no, no, no, not with our Power plants that spew out carbon dioxide, or automobiles that spew out carbon dioxide, airplanes, or deforestation. We have no respect for anything. And so because of you people our planet is going to be completely inhospitable in a couple hundred thousand years. Either that or we are going to pollute the atmosphere so horribly that just by breathing we are going to contract cancer. So yea sure keep burning those fossil fuels, release the carbon, and ruin the future a little more... We are all behind you!!!

PLEASE NO MORE GLOBAL WARMING DEBATE!!!!!!