New report shows Americans linking extreme weather, climate change

Creative Commons: Bo Insogna, 2010

A new release from the Yale University Project on Climate Change Communication shows widespread belief among Americans that extreme weather is linked with climate change. A few highlights from the report Americans’ Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in November 2011 are below:

Beliefs and Attitudes

• Public understanding that global warming is happening remained essentially unchanged at 63 percent, while belief that it is caused mostly by human activities increased three points since May 2011, to 50 percent.
• 54 percent of Americans worry about global warming, while 60 percent say the issue is personally important to them.
• 41 percent of Americans believe that most scientists think global warming is happening, while 39 percent believe there is a lot of disagreement among scientists.
• In May 2011, only 13 percent of Americans correctly understood that the great majority of climate scientists think global warming is happening. In our November survey, we asked Americans how their level of concern about global warming would change if “90 percent of climate scientists were to agree and state publicly that global warming is happening.” Almost half of Americans (47%) said this would increase their level of concern, while 48 percent said it would have no impact, and 5 percent said it would decrease their level of concern.
• A majority of Americans (57%) now disagree with the statement, “With the economy in such bad shape, the US can’t afford to reduce global warming” – an 8 point increase in disagreement since May 2011.

Extreme Weather and Climate Change

• After a record-breaking year of weather extremes, 56 percent of Americans said that weather in the U.S. has gotten worse over the past several years, 3 percent said it has gotten better, and 41 percent said it has been about the same as normal.
• 65 percent said that global warming is affecting weather in the United States.
• Majorities said that global warming made the following events worse in 2011:

- The record high summer temperatures in the U.S. (67%)
- The drought in Texas and Oklahoma (65%)
- The Mississippi River floods in the spring (60%)
- The record snowfalls in the U.S. in 2010 and 2011 (60%)
- Hurricane Irene (57%)

• However, 46 percent of Americans also said that global warming made the summer East Coast earthquake worse, indicating a flawed understanding of climate change as also documented in our recent study on Americans’ Knowledge of Climate Change.
• 58 percent of Americans said that the record heat waves last summer strengthened their belief that global warming is occurring, up 4 points since May 2011, while only 39 percent said that the record snowstorms in the eastern U.S. made them question whether global warming is occurring, down 8 points.
• 38 percent of Americans said they have personally experienced the effects of global warming, up 4 points since May of 2011. Of these, 58 percent said they have experienced global warming in the county, parish, or borough where they live, 26 percent in their home state, and 22 percent elsewhere in the U.S.

Trust

• Americans trust “climate scientists” (74%) more than “other kinds of scientists” (65%) as a source of information about global warming.
• Majorities trust their local public health department (61%) and their own primary care doctor (56%) as a source of information about global warming.
• Fewer Americans trust politicians as a source of information about global warming.

“Peak Resources”

For the first time, we asked Americans when, if ever, the United States will start to experience serious shortages of natural resources:

• 35 percent of Americans said that the U.S. is already experiencing or will experience serious shortages of oil in the next 10 years.
• By contrast, fewer believe serious shortages are imminent for precious metals like gold, silver or platinum (21%), coal or natural gas (20%), base metals like copper, lead or zinc (18%), and uranium (16%).
• 10 to 14 percent of Americans believe there will never be shortages of these resources.
• Roughly a third to half of Americans say they don’t know when the U.S. might experience serious shortages of these natural resources.
• Just over half (54%) say that they are very (9%) or somewhat worried (45%) about the U.S. running out of natural resources.

Tags: Facts, North America, Research, United States, Yale University

Category: Facts, News