Although most Americans believe global warming’s effects will take hold during their lifetime, they don’t expect these changes to pose a serious threat to their way of life, according to a new poll.
A Gallup survey found that 54 percent of Americans believe global warming is already impacting the planet; another 3 percent think these effects will occur in a few years and 8 percent think these effects will occur in their lifetime. Meanwhile, 16 percent think global warming’s effects will happen sometime after they die, and 18 percent don’t expect these effects to ever take hold.
But the way the public perceives the reality of global warming seems to be somewhat disconnected from how they perceive the threat of a warming world. Just 36 percent of people in the United States think global warming will eventually disrupt their way of life, they survey found.
Short-term weather (as opposed to long-term climate) is something that can affect Americans immediately and it’s been known to sway climate beliefs. Studies and polls have shown that when it’s unusually hot, the public is more prone to accept the reality of global warming. But when it’s cold outside, their climate concerns melt away.
A recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that local weather tends to create a priming effect for concerns about global warming, even when people are educated about the difference between weather, which includes storms and single events, and climate, which describes patterns that occur over long periods, such as decades, centuries or millennia.
http://www.weather.com/news/science/two-thirds-americans-not-troubled-climate-change-20140314
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