Part of Gallup's Climate Change series, Gallup conducted a recent poll on Americans' attitudes towards global warming and found three categories of attitudes: Concerned Believers, Cool Skeptics and the Mixed Middle. Understanding attitudes is important because there's strength in numbers. While the good news is that more Americans believe in global warming, more Americans also don't believe in global warming. The ones who aren't sure are the most vulnerable. While we stay divided, then we'll have to leave solving global warming to our leaders because we can't do it without a unified front.
Part of Gallup's Climate Change series, Gallup conducted a recent poll on Americans' attitudes towards global warming and found three categories of attitudes: Concerned Believers, Cool Skeptics and the Mixed Middle.
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Understanding attitudes is important because there's strength in numbers. While the good news is that more Americans believe in global warming, more Americans also don't believe in global warming. The ones who aren't sure are the most vulnerable. While we stay divided, then we'll have to leave solving global warming to our leaders because we can't do it without a unified front.
Who Are These People?
- Concerned Believers: They consider that global warming is a result of man-made actions, and they are concerned. And 60 percent of Concerned Believers are made up of women. Concerned Believers tend to be younger than 50-years-old, and they tend to lean Democrat.
- Cool Skeptics: They are not very worried, if at all, about global warming. Men make up 66 percent of the Cool Skeptic category. Cool Skeptics are usually over 50-years-old and they self-identify as Republican.
- Mixed Middle: They are torn in their beliefs and in their concern; they believe a combination of Concerned Believer and Cool Skeptics beliefs. While there is a mixture of men and women, there are more women in this cluster. While education isn't a distinctive feature among the other groups, most of the respondents in the Mixed Middle group don't have strong educational backgrounds.
There Are More Believers and More Skeptics
While the good news is that close to 40 percent of the respondents fall into the Concerned Believers cluster, 1 in 4 are still Cool Skeptics. The Mixed Middle group ranked smack in the middle with 36 percent of the vote.
According to Gallup, compared to previous polls from 2001, while the Cool Skeptics' numbers have grown since 2001, the Mixed Middle's numbers have taken a nosedive; the Mixed Middle used to hold the majority.
While it can be argued that most Americans are taking a stand, why are the Cool Skeptics' numbers getting hotter?
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Global warming words via Shutterstock.
