Americans: Global Warming a Big Future Worry, Not Pending Doom
While global warming is hotly debated within evangelical circles, the problem is not a burning issue for the general American public today.
A survey conducted by The Gallup Poll found that Americans are concerned about global warming, but most view it as a problem to be dealt with in the coming decades.
Only a third of Americans (34 percent) at most said they were "very worried" about global warming causing more powerful hurricanes or more frequent flooding and droughts, according to the poll released on Monday.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The poll listed seven potential global warming effects on the Earth and asked participants if they were very worried, worried, or not worried. The list includes: stronger hurricanes, increase in floods and droughts, extinction of animal species, significant rise in ocean levels, widespread tropical diseases, cooling of Northern Europe, and extinction of human life.
Americans are, however, "worried" about global warming and its potential threats to the earth, with 50-69 percent stating they were concerned about each of the listed dangers. One category - the extinction of human life - was the exception where most participants (66 percent) said they were "not worried" about this potential consequence.
The poll's follow-up question helped explain why most American were only "worried" and not "very worried" about global warming disrupting current life on earth. The results showed that the majority of people believe most of the listed disasters will occur in the next 50 years rather than in the next 10 years or even now.
According to the Gallup report, 71 percent of Americans said they believe more powerful hurricanes will be witnessed in the next 50 years, and 58 percent said they expect more prevalent tropical diseases as a result of global warming to occur in the next decades.
Only in the category of powerful hurricanes did nearly half (49 percent) of the people say they believe it has already taken place.
Overall, Americans do not seem to consider global warming an imminent threat or a top priority for the government to tackle.
The view of most Americans that significant global warming effects will not occur until later decades correspond to a report by the world's top climate change scientists.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change draft document obtained by The Associated Press, death rates among the world's poor from global warming-related illness, such as malnutrition and diarrhea, will grow by 2030, according to AP. Malaria and dengue fever is also expected to increase during this period.
The report also predicted that rising ocean levels could cause some 100 million people each year to be flooded.
Moreover, hundreds of millions of Africans and tens of millions of Latin Americans will have water shortages in less than 20 years under the present conditions, according to the panel of experts.
The report, a combined effort by more than 1,000 of the world's top scientists from 12 countries, is the second of four reports to be issued this year. The first report, released last month, stated that scientists are 90 percent certain that global warming is caused by human activities.
Scientists emphasize that although most of the consequences of global warming will not be seen until the coming decades, nations and individuals should reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The final draft of the report to be released early April in Brussels, Belgium, is expected to be presented to President George W. Bush and other world leaders to encourage them to reduce their country's emission of gases contributing to the warming of the planet.
