Yale University Poll Shows Americans Are Confused On Climate Change

By on October 18, 2010 in News 8
climate change poll

Click image to download PDF of full report

I’m not sure which camp the results of this poll by Yale University helps the most, the climate change believers or their sworn enemies, the “deniers:”

Americans’ Knowledge of Climate Change reports results from a national study of what Americans understand about how the climate system works, and the causes, impacts, and potential solutions to global warming. Among other findings, the study identifies a number of important gaps in public knowledge and common misconceptions about climate change.

Overall, we found that 63 percent of Americans believe that global warming is happening, but many do not understand why… These misconceptions lead some people to doubt that global warming is happening or that human activities are a major contributor, to misunderstand the causes and therefore the solutions, and to be unaware of the risks. Thus many Americans lack some of the knowledge needed for informed decision-making in a democratic society. For example, only:

  • 57% know that the greenhouse effect refers to gases in the atmosphere that trap heat;
  • 50% of Americans understand that global warming is caused mostly by human activities;
  • 45% understand that carbon dioxide traps heat from the Earth’s surface;
  • 25% have ever heard of coral bleaching or ocean acidification.

Download the full report as a PDF here. Read the rest of the summary here.

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  • Marklar_Prime

    And how many know that carbon dioxide is essential to plant and crop growth and therefore all life on earth? How many understand that creating trend lines on graphs based upon a changing sources of data is not really scientific at all? How many understand that the Earth has, in the past, been significantly warmer than it is now, or that the planet has been cooling for the last decade or so despite fear mongering? How many understand that a computer model can only be expected to show what it is programmed to show? How many understand the the IPCC is primarily a political organization rather than a scientific organization, and that they signed the names of their 2,000 scientists to a report they had never read nor been asked to approve? How many understand that placing monitoring stations over blacktop and near exhaust vents can create man made warming of the data without any correlation to warming of the earth, especially while rural monitoring stations which suffer no such man made warming are removed from service? How many realize the sun effects the Earth’s temperature? How many realize that shifting terminology is often used to re-frame a debate that is being lost?

    So many questions this pole doesn’t address. I wonder why, LMAO. Oh, and before you accuse me of being a shill for the oil companies let me inform you that I am the VP of R&D at an alternative energy start up in the field of hydrogen fuel cell technology so I really profit from all the insane fear mongering.

    • DENIERFORLIFE

      HAHAHAAAA!!!! Look at the questions, this is a fucking rigged test!

      50% of Americans understand that global warming is caused mostly by human activities;

      Like they can prove that, yet they call people “wrong” for not agreeing? Another hit piece…. Of shit. Propaganda all day man, when are they gonna give up??? Has anyone followed up on climategate? Lol, there’s been more since then that discredits the theory of anthropogenic warming… Idiots.

  • http://twitter.com/Marklar_Prime Marklar Kronkite

    And how many know that carbon dioxide is essential to plant and crop growth and therefore all life on earth? How many understand that creating trend lines on graphs based upon a changing sources of data is not really scientific at all? How many understand that the Earth has, in the past, been significantly warmer than it is now, or that the planet has been cooling for the last decade or so despite fear mongering? How many understand that a computer model can only be expected to show what it is programmed to show? How many understand the the IPCC is primarily a political organization rather than a scientific organization, and that they signed the names of their 2,000 scientists to a report they had never read nor been asked to approve? How many understand that placing monitoring stations over blacktop and near exhaust vents can create man made warming of the data without any correlation to warming of the earth, especially while rural monitoring stations which suffer no such man made warming are removed from service? How many realize the sun effects the Earth’s temperature? How many realize that shifting terminology is often used to re-frame a debate that is being lost?

    So many questions this pole doesn’t address. I wonder why, LMAO. Oh, and before you accuse me of being a shill for the oil companies let me inform you that I am the VP of R&D at an alternative energy start up in the field of hydrogen fuel cell technology so I really profit from all the insane fear mongering.

  • DENIERFORLIFE

    HAHAHAAAA!!!! Look at the questions, this is a fucking rigged test!

    50% of Americans understand that global warming is caused mostly by human activities;

    Like they can prove that, yet they call people “wrong” for not agreeing? Another hit piece…. Of shit. Propaganda all day man, when are they gonna give up??? Has anyone followed up on climategate? Lol, there’s been more since then that discredits the theory of anthropogenic warming… Idiots.

  • Ironaddict06

    EDMUND DE ROTHSCHILD. Read about the man that invented global warming. Global warming people aren’t concerned about the planet-it’s about trillions of dollars and probably more important land.
    http://euro-med.dk/?p=13656

  • Ironaddict06

    EDMUND DE ROTHSCHILD. Read about the man that invented global warming. Global warming people aren’t concerned about the planet-it’s about trillions of dollars and probably more important land.
    http://euro-med.dk/?p=13656

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    0.1% of Americans understand that Al Gore and Co. found a nifty way to transform the entire eco-friendly left into a toothless harmless beast that chases after a pipe dream instead of pushing for legislation that could limit genuinely harmful chemicals (the way they used to in the 60s and 70s…before the ‘global warming’ spectre shifted the entire debate over to CO2 instead of mercury, lead, petro-residue, sulfur, coal etc etc etc.)

    Hope our children get some free medical care from those billions in traded carbon credits…because they’ll have nine kinds of cancer to treat and survive before they get old enough to retire. Fuck Al Gore…fuck him with a salt crusted chainsaw dipped in lemon juice.

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    0.1% of Americans understand that Al Gore and Co. found a nifty way to transform the entire eco-friendly left into a toothless harmless beast that chases after a pipe dream instead of pushing for legislation that could limit genuinely harmful chemicals (the way they used to in the 60s and 70s…before the ‘global warming’ spectre shifted the entire debate over to CO2 instead of mercury, lead, petro-residue, sulfur, coal etc etc etc.)

    Hope our children get some free medical care from those billions in traded carbon credits…because they’ll have nine kinds of cancer to treat and survive before they get old enough to retire. Fuck Al Gore…fuck him with a salt crusted chainsaw dipped in lemon juice.