Global Warming Now in Doubt, Americans Say

In the past six months, apparently 14 percent of Americans have changed their minds about the existence of global warming, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. In April, the same survey said that 71 percent of people felt there was "solid evidence the Earth is warming", but in October's survey only 57 percent said that was true.

There was also an 11 percent decline (from 47 to 36) in respondents who said the Earth's warming was due to human activities. Also significant is a nine percent decline (44 to 35) in people who said global warming is a "serious problem". The decline goes across all political opinions, but it is most pronounced among independent voters.

So why is this? Could it be that health care and swine flu have replaced global warming as the biggest threat to life on Earth? Could it be, as Megan McArdle suggests, that "45 million Americans spent the last year reviewing the scientific evidence on Global Warming and changed their minds"? Or was it the unseasonably cool summer that most of North America experienced, combined with the earliest snowfall on record in many places in the Rocky Mountains, that has swayed opinion?

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