Fatalistic Friday: Americans still confused about global warming

A recipe for climate disruption:

• Take the American public
• Add 10-plus years of slick global warming disinformation campaigns aimed at both pubilc and journalists
• Season with gaps in science education

Stir vigorously to blend.

The result: A populace that -- at the same time it's burning enormous quantities of oil and coal, which produces most of the excess heat-trapping greenhouse gas pollution in the atmosphere -- remains uncertain, doubtful, and sometimes significantly misinformed when it comes to both the science and the reality of global warming.

Serves one planet, badly.

There's apparently a huge gap between what scientists understand about human-propelled global warming, and what the public understands. According to the latest Pew Research Center science survey (done jointly with the American Association for the Advancement of Science), 35% of the public believes that "scientists do not generally agree" that the earth is getting warmer because of human activity. That is, just over a third of adult Americans believe there is still significant disagreement among scientists about the extent of human-propelled global warming. (This number is up from 29% in Pew's 2006 survey.)

However, Pew found that among scientists, 84% agree that human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, are primarily what's causing the Earth's surface temperature to rise. Put another way, with more than 8 in 10 scientists agreeing on both the reality and the causes of climate change, there is no longer "significant disagreement" in the field.

However, just 49% of the public agree that human activities are changing the climate.

These findings demonstrate just how big a challenge sits before political leaders, journalists, scientists, educators, and fellow citizens to educate the public, and get effective clean energy and climate policies enacted in the US.

The survey reveals some upbeat trends as well: Pew found that the public holds scientists in high esteem. "84% of Americans agree that science is having a mostly positive effect on society, and that this belief holds strong across every major demographic category, including 88% of Republicans and 83% of Evangelicals," writes "Framing Science" blogger Matthew Nisbett in his excellent summary of this portion of the survey.

"When asked to evaluate various professions, roughly 70% of Americans answer that scientists 'contribute a lot' to society compared to 38% for journalists, 23% for lawyers, 40% for clergy, and 21% for business executives. Only members of the military (84%) and teachers (77%) rate higher in public admiration and esteem," Nisbett writes.

This suggests that if and as scientists comment publicly on the reality of global warming, what's causing it, and how to slow it down, a plurality of Americans will believe them.

That leaves it up to my reviled profession to do more fair and accurate reporting on these issues, too.

After the jump, some more of the (rather disheartening) global warming-related findings from Pew's survey:

66% of the public knows that carbon dioxide is the gas "most scientists believe causes temperatures in the atmosphere to rise." Which means that again, a full third of the nation's adults don't grasp one of the basic facts and challenges of the current age.

Only 10% of scientists think the Earth is getting warmer because of natural changes in atmosphere, but 36% of the public thinks this is true.

In a particularly telling symptom of the success of disinformation campaigns seeking to stall or stop reductions in greenhouse gas pollution, 56% of the public believe that "scientists generally agree that the earth is getting warmer because of human activity," slightly down from 59% in 2006.

11% of the public believe the earth is not getting warmer, compared to 2% of scientists. And while 70% of scientists agree that global warming is a "very serious problem," less than half the public, 47%, thinks so; 13% thinks it is "not a problem," compared to a minute 2% of scientists.

----- Image: Dust Accelerates Snow Melt in San Juan Mountains: "...the present-day snow cover and hydrology of the American West have changed since the nineteenth century, independent of climate change. The changes, such as the timing of the spring/summer melt documented in these images, are due to dust generated when the semi-arid landscapes of the western United States are disturbed by agriculture and grazing animals. With the drying and warming projected for the desert southwestern United States and other deserts of the globe as a result of global warming, dust is likely to have an increasing impact on critical water resources in places like the West." Source: NASA Earth Observatory