Be wary of politicians who presume to know the public's mind on global warming -- it's a tricky business and something of a moving target.
A Gallup poll based on telephone interviews March 5-8 with 1,012 adults - standing in for the rest of us - found an increasing number of Americans believe that the threat posed by global warming is exaggerated by the mainstream media. "This represents the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling in the subject," the company said.
More Americans - 41% - say the problem is exaggerated rather than underestimated, some 28%, Gallup said. That reverses a 2006 poll that found that more Americans thought the media underestimated the seriousness of global warming - 38% , compared to 30% who believed the opposite.
About 66% of those polled worry a great deal or a fair amount about global warming, the lowest percentage among several environmental problems Gallup asked about. Most worried about pollution of drinking water (84%).
However, 60% believed that global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetime, still a sold majority, although down from 69% in 1998. At the same time, 38% did not (up from 25% in 1998).
"It is not clear whether the troubled economy has drawn attention away from the global warming message or whether other factors are at work," Gallup said.
Zogby International conducted an online survey with 3,365 voters from March 2 through March 5 on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation. The pollsters read a portion of President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, citing the need to "transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change," and calling on Congress to pass legislation "that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives production of more renewable energy in America."
According to the poll, 41.6% strongly agreed with Obama's call for such legislation; 16.5% somewhat agreed; 8.4% somewhat disagreed; and 31.5% strongly disagreed. That's a total of 58.1% voting aye and 39.9% voting nay. Some 1.9% said they were "not sure."
Gallup and the narrow Zogby poll asked different questions, but coincidentally the percentage of those polled by Gallup who believe that global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetime (60%) tracks closely with the percentage of those polled by Zogby who support (strongly or somewhat) a cap on carbon (58.1%). Conversely, 38% in Gallup didn't believe that global warming posed a threat and 39.9% in Zogby oppose a carbon cap.
And a telephone poll conducted January 7-11 of 1,503 adults, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the Public & the Press, found that dealing with global warming ranked 20th or dead last among top domestic priorities for President Obama and Congress, with only 30% of those polled stating that it was the top priority, ranking well below strengthening the nation's economy, which ranked first by 85% of the respondents.
Pew has asked about global warming since 2007, when it ranked third from the bottom, at 38%,. Last year it was at the bottom, with 35%. Those results are not terribly surprising since the threat of global warming may seem relatively remote compared to the economic crisis, job losses and health care. Nevertheless, it's a top priority for the Obama administration and the Democratic leadership of Congress, and sometimes politicians are forced to lead from in front.
Lead from the front or jam their ideas and paybacks to their followers down decent peoples' throats?
Dear Beach - You're suggesting that people who differ with you on global warming are not decent. I've seen no evidence of that.