Last week I wrote several entries on the topic of global warming, and most recently on legislation at the Federal level related to global warming.

Is the Earth warming? According climate change scientists, the answer is yes, as shown in the graph below. However, making policy changes, as we have discussed here in this blog, is not simply going to happen because the data shows that we should. Policy makers, and the general public are the ones that are going to enact legislation, and support the legislators, respectively.

The Pew Research Center has conducted a number of interviews related to global warming. Their most recent investigation of global warming was in January, 2007. In this questionnaire, which has been repeated at least four times, 70% or more of the respondents agree that there is “solid evidence” that the earth is heating up, as shown in the chart below (Stable Views of Global Warming). The most recent survey shows that 77% agree with the global warming theory. But notice that when asked about what is the cause of this warming, 47% (in the two most recent polls) say it is due to human activity, whereas 20% say it is due to natural causes.

When political views are used to make comparisons of views of global warming, the differences are very sharp. The Pew Center calls them “polarizing” as seen the chart below. Note that 54% of conservative republicans agree that earth is getting warmer, while 92% of liberal democrats agree. However, when we look at the middle of the political spectrum, there is little difference in views. This might be a good omen, in that moderate republicans and moderate democrats appeared to do very well in the last election.

Where does global warming stack up with other pressing global issues. In the same poll, global warming does not stack up very well compared to other global problems. It was near the bottom of the list for republicans, democrats and independents. Independents and republicans put terrorism at the top of their list, whereas health care costs was first on the democrats’ list.

However, in another poll that looked at top foreign policy priorities, scientists and engineers put climate change first, state and local governments identified energy independence, where as terrorism and defense were identified as top priority for the general public, the military, the media, religious groups, and the academic and think tank communities.

Several years ago, researchers working on the Global Thinking Project investigated the views of secondary school students in America and Russia on global environmental problems. Students were asked to rank a set of problems that were presented to them, as well as add problems to the list that they felt were important. In the study, Citizen Scientists: Student Experiences in the GTP Georgia/Russian Exchange Project, American students identified air pollution as most important, and ranked the greenhouse effect and global warming fourth in the list. The Russian students identified pollution and global warming at the top of the list. They also identified nuclear arms and testing as an important global problem. It would be interesting to repeat the study, given the way the world has changed since 2001. Here are the results in list form.

American Students
* Pollution
* Ozone depletion
* Air pollution
* Rainforest destruction
* Greenhouse effect and global warming
* Landfills and waste disposal
* Littering
* Overpopulation

Russian Students
* Air pollution
* Global Warming
* Water pollution
* Ozone layer
* Extinction of living species
* Nuclear arms and testing of weapons
* Solid waste disposal
* Overpopulation

So, we see that the views on global warming are mixed. There are some people in our society, and in many other countries, that believe global warming is a threat to the future of life on the earth, and that governments need to take action immediately. Others do not rate global warming as the most important problem facing us. What do you think?