* American Opinion about

Global Warming *

* "The scientific evidence is clear that climate change is real, human-caused and a
serious threat to communities across America," said Edward Maibach, director of
the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. "The
erosion in both public concern and public trust about global warming should be a
clarion call for people and organizations trying to educate the public about this
important issue."

* The results come from a nationally representative survey of 1,001 American

adults, age 18 and older. The sample was weighted to correspond with U.S.
Census Bureau parameters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3
percent, with 95 percent confidence. The survey was designed by researchers at
Yale and George Mason Universities and conducted from December 23, 2009, to
January 3, 2010 by Knowledge Networks using an online research panel of
American adults.

The survey found:

* Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are "somewhat" or "very worried"
about global warming, a 13-point decrease.

* The percentage of Americans who think global warming is happening has

declined 14 points, to 57 percent.

* The percentage of Americans who think global warming is caused mostly by

human activities dropped 10 points, to 47 percent.

* "Despite growing scientific evidence that global warming will have serious
impacts worldwide, public opinion is moving in the opposite direction," said
Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change. "Over the
past year the United States has experienced rising unemployment, public
frustration with Washington and a divisive health care debate, largely pushing
climate change out of the news.
 * What is Global Warming? *

* Global Warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth.

As the Earth is getting hotter, disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods are
getting more frequent.

* Over the last 100 years, the average air temperature near the Earth’s surface has
risen by a little less than 1 degree Celsius or 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Doesn't seem
that much, does it? Yet it is responsible for the conspicuous increase in storms,
floods and raging forest fires we have seen in recent years, say scientists.
 
* Their data show that an increase of one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer
now than it has been for at least a thousand years. The top 11 warmest years on
record have all been in the last 13 years, said NASA in 2007, and the first half of
2010 has already gone down in history as the hottest ever recorded.

* Global warming is the cause, while climate change is the effect.

* It is not just about how much the Earth is warming, but more of about how fast
it is warming.

* All these facts lead scientists to infer that the global warming we now
experience is not a natural occurrence and that it is not brought on by natural
causes. Humanity’s industrial emissions are responsible, they say.

* The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

delivered a huge blow to global warming skeptics. Leading climate scientists are
now 90 percent sure that human activity is heating up the planet. They present
various scenarios that show where global warming could take us by the end of the
century. The choice is ours.