Public Opinion Quarterly Advance Access originally published online on August 23, 2007
Public Opinion Quarterly 2007 71(3):444-470; doi:10.1093/poq/nfm031
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The Polls—Trends
Twenty Years of Public Opinion about Global Warming
Address correspondence to Matthew C. Nisbet; e-mail: nisbetmc{at}gmail.com
Over the past 20 years, there have been dozens of news organization, academic, and nonpartisan public opinion surveys on global warming, yet there exists no authoritative summary of their collective findings. In this article, we provide a systematic review of trends in public opinion about global warming. We sifted through hundreds of polling questions culled from more than 70 surveys administered over the past 20 years. In compiling the available trends, we summarize public opinion across several key dimensions including (a) public awareness of the issue of global warming; (b) public understanding of the causes of global warming and the specifics of the policy debate; (c) public perceptions of the certainty of the science and the level of agreement among experts; (d) public concern about the impacts of global warming; (e) public support for policy action in light of potential economic costs; and (f) public support for the Kyoto climate treaty.
MATTHEW C. NISBET, Ph.D., is assistant professor in the School of Communication, American University, Washington, DC, USA. TERESA MYERS is a doctoral student, School of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.