A poll from research-based consulting company Gallup reveals that Americans are now taking global warming more seriously.
The survey found that concerns about climate change has never been this high as any time in the past eight years.
Changes In Attitudes About Global Warming
The survey involved 1,019 adult Americans aged 18 years old and above. All the participants were asked via telephone interview from March 2 to 6. They all live within the 50 U.S. states, most of whom were residents of the District of Columbia.
Generally, the results show that the percentage of Americans who are worried a great deal about global warming rose from 55 percent in 2015 to 64 percent this year.
There was also an increase in the number of Americans who believe the impacts of global warming has started. About 59 percent from 2015's 55 percent say that it has already begun, while 31 percent from last year's 28 percent think the impacts are not yet present, but will soon be.
There was a downward trend reported, however, and that is the percentage of Americans who believe global warming will never happen. The rate plummeted from 16 percent in 2015 to 10 percent this year.
Rising Temperatures Caused By Human Activity
Studies, advocacies and other public calls may have suppressed the public from having raised concerns toward the effects of global warming. However, the factors that influence their change of belief prove to be much more stronger now.
One of the factors that may have caused the public to acknowledge global warming is seven years of marked warm weather during the winter season.
"Americans' clear shift toward belief in global warming follows a winter most described in the same poll as being unusually warm," the Gallup report reads.
If such trend will persist, it will raise public concerns more significantly than whatever program or project politicians or scientists plan to do.
The poll also shows that 65 percent of Americans say rising climate temperatures over the last 100 years may basically be due to human activity instead of natural phenomena. Such claim is supported by numbers, with a 10 percent increase from 2015 and a four-point higher rate than the previous high of 61 percent recorded in 2007.
All Parties Unite
Regardless of party – Independents, Democrats, Republicans – all Americans now show an increase in global warming concerns since 2015. Although Democrats and Republicans exhibit higher concerns, the trend among all groups points to one uphill direction.
Democrats show an increased rate of concern from 78 percent in 2015 to 84 percent this year. Republicans had a higher rate of change, from 31 percent last year to 40 percent this year. The same rate of increase was noted among Independents, with a 55 percent to 64 percent rise.
