The annual Gallup survey of Americans’ attitudes on environmental issues, reports the polling group, "shows a public that over the last two years has become less worried about the threat of global warming, less convinced that its effects are already happening, and more likely to believe that scientists themselves are uncertain about its occurrence."
The Gallup poll results released on March 11 noted: "In response to one key question, 48% of Americans now believe that the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated, up from 41% in 2009 and 31% in 1997, when Gallup first asked the question."
The Gallup press release notes that the results of the annual survey, known as the Gallup Social Series Environment Poll, "show that the reversal in Americans’ concerns about global warming that began last year has continued in 2010 — in some cases reverting to the levels recorded when Gallup began tracking global warming measures more than a decade ago."
According to the Gallup news release, the poll, which was conducted March 4-7, also produced the following findings:
The percentage of Americans who now say reports of global warming are generally exaggerated is by a significant margin the highest such reading in the 13-year history of asking the question. In 1997, 31% said global warming’s effects had been exaggerated; last year, 41% said the same, and this year the number is 48%….
Many global warming activists have used film and photos of melting ice caps and glaciers, and the expanding reach of deserts, to drive home their point that global warming is already having alarming effects on the earth. While these efforts may have borne fruit over much of the 2000s, during the last two years, Americans’ convictions about global warming’s effects have waned.
A majority of Americans still agree that global warming is real, as 53% say the effects of the problem have already begun or will do so in a few years. That percentage is dwindling, however. The average American is now less convinced than at any time since 1997 that global warming’s effects have already begun or will begin shortly.
Meanwhile, 35% say that the effects of global warming either will never happen (19%) or will not happen in their lifetimes (16%).
The 19% figure is more than double the number who held this view in 1997.
"In similar fashion," the Gallup report says, "the percentage of Americans who believe that global warming is going to affect them or their way of life in their lifetimes has dropped to 32% from a 40% high point in 2008. Two-thirds of Americans say global warming will not affect them in their lifetimes."
The Gallup report does not use the term "Climategate" or refer specifically to the email scandal exposing the scientific fraud and despicable behavior by some of the world’s top "climate scientists," or mention the recent scandalous exposure of claims by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, it does note:
Some of the shifts in Americans’ views may reflect real-world events, including the publicity surrounding allegations of scientific fraud relating to global warming evidence, and — perhaps in some parts of the country — a reflection of the record-breaking snow and cold temperatures of this past winter. Additionally, evidence from last year showed that the issue of global warming was becoming heavily partisan in nature, and it may be that the continuing doubts about global warming put forth by conservatives and others are having an effect.
Considering the non-stop onslaught of global-warming propaganda over the past two decades and the effective blackout by the major media of the recent Climategate revelations, the significant downturn in public belief in the "crisis" of global warming is all the more remarkable. This stunning development shows the impact of the "New Media": Internet news sites, blogs, talk radio, and web tv. The opinion control exerted by the liberal-left Old Media is crumbling. According to Gallup, "it may be that the continuing doubts about global warming put forth by conservatives and others are having an effect."
While it is true that doubts about anthropogenic global warming (AGW, or human-caused global warming) have been expressed by many who could be called, or who would classify themselves as, political conservatives, there also are thousands of scientists, including many from all across the political spectrum, who have been heroically challenging and effectively contradicting the false "consensus" claimed by Al Gore and the UN’s IPCC. The latest results from Gallup are a victory for real science, as well as encouraging evidence that speaking truth to power does indeed work.
Related stories:
IPCC Researchers Admit Global Warming Fraud
Climategate: George Monbiot’s Lament
Climate Scientist Admits No Warming in 15 Years
Global Warming Murder-Suicide: Why Didn’t Al Gore Save Them?
Scientist’s Climate Change Dissent Vindicated
