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Subject: U.S. public opinion and climate change
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FOR EMBARGOED RELEASE
Tuesday, July 28, 1998, 5 p.m.
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL SURVEY GAUGES U.S.
PUBLIC OPINION ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE
WASHINGTON, DC -- The newly-released results of an independent
national survey sponsored by Resources for the Future (RFF) confirm
that most Americans believe global climate change is real and
damaging and that the federal government should take significant
steps to combat it.
But the findings also suggest that, despite public education campaigns
in the Fall of 1997 about global warming by the White House and
industry and environmental lobbying groups, as well as substantial
coverage of the issue by the news media, neither side on this issue
can claim many more supporters after the fall than before.
The chief effect of these campaigns and news coverage, the survey's
findings indicate, was to deepen division in the American public along
political party lines -- more Democrats came to believe that global
warming exists and will have undesirable consequences, while more
Republicans came to believe that global warming is not a reality and
will not have undesirable consequences.
The survey, conducted by researchers in Ohio State University's (OSU)
Survey Research Unit, tracked American public opinion regarding global
climate change both before and after the international climate
agreement reached by negotiators in Kyoto, Japan, in December. OSU's
Jon A. Krosnick, PhD, and Penny S. Visser, directors of the survey,
presented their findings on July 28 at a public briefing held at RFF.
"We found that the fall debate on global warming served the
constructive function of focusing public attention on the issue,"
Krosnick says. "The Clinton Administration's efforts on climate
change, kicked off in October of last year, have been a remarkable
example of the use of the 'bully pulpit' by a vigorous and popular
president, actively supported by an unusually visible and popular vice
president."
"However," Krosnick adds, "these efforts, coupled with hundreds of
news stories and paid advertisements, did little to change the balance
of Americans' belief about global warming, but rather crystallized
people's opinions and increased the polarization of the issue along
political lines."
In their survey, researchers asked a representative national sample of
687 American adults a number of questions related to beliefs and
attitudes about global warming between September 1 and October 5,
1997, before the October 6 kick-off of the White House Initiative on
Climate Change. The research team then interviewed another
representative national sample of 725 adults between December 20, 1997
and February 13, 1998, after the creation of The Kyoto Protocol, which
calls for many industrialized countries to reduce their total national
emissions over the period 2008-2012 to an average of about five
percent below 1990 levels. Interviews lasted an average of 40
minutes.
Some of the other primary findings of the survey are that:
- People wanted governments, businesses, and the public to do quite a
bit to combat global warming but believed very little was being done.
- Widespread support was expressed for federal efforts to restrict
air pollution, but public opinion indicated less willingness to pay
higher utility bills to reduce air pollution after the fall than
before.
- One-third of the public thinks of global warming as an extremely or
very serious problem for the country; 11 percent say the issue is
extremely important to them personally.
The study was sponsored by RFF and funded by OSU, the National Science
Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The results of the study are detailed in the RFF report, "The Impact
of the Fall 1997 Debate About Global Warming on American Public
Opinion." It can be downloaded on the internet at --
http://www.rff.org/misc_docs/osu_long.pdf.
# # #
Contact:
Michael Tebo
(202) 328-5019
tebo@rff.org
Michael Tebo
Public Affairs Manager
Resources for the Future
(202) 328-5019
tebo@rff.org
RFF's home page:
http://www.rff.org
RFF's Weathervane, a digital forum
on global climate policy:
http://www.weathervane.rff.org
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