Have We Forgotten About Global Warming?

New polls show that the American people’s concern with global warming has cooled off. According to the poll funded by the Yale Project on Climate Change and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, we are significantly less worried. Under 50 percent say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” – a 13 percent decrease from a poll taken in October 2008. The percentage of Americans who think global warming is occurring fell from 71 to 57 percent, and the percentage that believe climate change is caused primarily by human activities fell from 57 to 47 percent. The percentage of people who think that Americans are currently harmed by global warming, dropped from 34 to 25 percent.

A new poll by the Pew Center for the People & The Press, found that over 80 percent of adults list jobs and the economy as top priorities for the White House and Congress in 2010. Global warming ranked at the bottom of issues polled – 28 percent said it should be a top priority, while 36 percent called it an “important but lower priority.” “Such a low ranking is driven in part by indifference among Republicans: just 11% consider global warming a top priority, compared with 43% of Democrats and 25% of independents,” a summary of the Pew poll released Monday states. The economy is a top priority for 83 percent of the 1,504 people polled earlier this month, followed by jobs at 81 percent and terrorism at 80 percent. Forty-nine percent said dealing with the nation’s energy problems is a top priority, while 44 percent listed protecting the environment in that category.

At the same time as the American people’s concern of global warming decreases, the global temperature and the melting of Antarctica increases. Glaciers in Antarctica are melting faster and across a much wider area than previously thought, a development that threatens to raise sea levels worldwide and force millions of people to flee low-lying areas, scientists say. By the end of the century, the accelerated melting could cause sea levels to climb by 3 to 5 feet — levels substantially higher than predicted by a major scientific group just two years ago.

Victoria Lindbak, Intern