Poll: 3 in 8 Americans believe global warming is a hoax

(Before It's News)

Desdemona Despair

By Nick Wiltgen
4 April 2013

(Weather Channel) – Roughly three of every eight registered voters in the U.S. believes that “global warming is a hoax,” according to a national poll released Tuesday by the firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) [pdf].

The automated telephone poll asked 1,247 American registered voters their beliefs on a wide range of topics broadly categorized as “conspiracy theories” in the firm’s press release.

When asked, “Do you believe global warming is a hoax, or not?” 37% of Americans said they do, while 51% said they do not. Twelve percent of those surveyed were not sure.

Dr. Jeff Masters, co-founder and director of meteorology at Weather Underground, isn’t hedging his bets:

“So, who is more likely to be correct — the 97% of all publishing climate scientists, who view the evidence as showing that humans are primarily responsible for global warming? Or the 37% of the public who view global warming as a hoax, who have been subject to a massive PR campaign by the richest industry in human history, to make them believe just that? I’ll go with the 97% of climate scientists.”

Consistent with other surveys, the answers strongly reflected political preferences. 

Among respondents who said they had voted for President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, 77% said they do not believe global warming is a hoax, compared to 12% who do. By contrast, 61% of respondents who voted for former Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012 said they do believe global warming is a hoax, versus 24% who said they do not.

Fourteen percent of self-identified “very liberal” voters believe global warming is a hoax, and just 12% of “somewhat liberal” voters do. Those numbers increase to 52% for “somewhat conservative” voters and 71% for “very conservative” respondents.

Partisan affiliations reflected this ideological split, with just 11% of Democrats but 58% of Republicans saying global warming is a hoax. Among independents, 41% agreed and 51% disagreed with the “hoax” characterization. [more]

Poll: 3 in 8 Americans Believe Global Warming A Hoax

• Amazon tribe threatens to declare war over Brazil dam project – ‘It is unacceptable and illegitimate for the government to impose dialogue at the tip of a bayonet’
• U.S. scientists warn climate change will double wildfire risk in Western forests – ‘It’s just unprecedented things happening. We’re getting into extreme events that seem to be having more and more effects across broader landscapes.’
• Secret files expose global impact of shadow banking – ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. This secret world has finally been revealed.’
• Public alarm over climate change grows, Yale study shows – ‘There is something fundamentally different in the way Americans are engaging with the issue of climate change’
• James Hansen retires from NASA to fight global warming – ‘As a government employee, you can’t testify against the government’
• In Mexican villages, few are left to dream of U.S. – ‘It’s a new Mexico, it’s a new United States, and the interaction between them is new’
• First Expansion Of ‘Sea Potato’ Seaweed Into New England
• Discovery Of 1,800-Year-Old Rosetta Stone For Tropical Ice Cores
• GMO’s are Everywhere, Sucker!
• Changes at CA-CP