Global Warming and Human Activity

Nearly half the nation’s voters still believe that global warming is caused primarily by long term planetary trends, not human activity.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 47% of voters blame global warming on planetary trends, while 37% of voters take the opposite view and blame human activity. Just 5% point to some other reason.

Voters continue to believe the president holds the opposite view. Fifty percent (50%) say President Obama blames global warming on human activity, while only 20% think he blames planetary trends. But another 21% are not sure what the president believes.

These results come as the White House may have to push back plans for its aggressive legislation to combat global warming. That effort included new spending on green technology and jobs but may be too much due to the high level of government spending already accumulated this year.

Belief that human activity is the primary cause of global warming has declined significantly over the past year. In April of last year, the numbers were nearly the mirror image of the current numbers. At that time, 47% blamed human activity and only 34% named long term planetary trends as the reason for climate change.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters consider global warming to be a serious problem, including 34% who see it as very serious. The number who see it as a Very Serious problem has declined seven points since January and thirteen points since April 2008.

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