Majority of Americans Believe Global Warming Affecting Weather Events

[Frodo]

Global Warming Spurs Extreme Weather, Most in US Believe

By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor | LiveScience.com – Tue, Oct 9, 2012

The majority of Americans think global warming is not only affecting weather but is also worsening extreme weather events, including record-high summer temperatures and the Midwest drought, a new survey released today (Oct. 9) finds.

Between Aug. 31 and September, more than 1,000 participants ages 18 and over answered survey questions about their beliefs on global warming and its link to weather events. The results were weighted to give nationally representative numbers.

Overall, there has been an uptick in Americans who see a link between global warming and weather events, as well as those who think weather has gotten worse over time, compared with the March survey, both of which were conducted by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.
For instance, 74 percent (a 5 percent increase from March) of Americans said "global warming is affecting weather in the United States." The increase was mostly driven by changing beliefs of residents in the Northeast (82 percent saw a link, up 11 points from March) and the South (75 percent, up 9 points).

[後援会]

Although global warming is a real and serious problem...blaming global warming for a heat wave is stupid.

[fezzyfestoon]

I think there's a mass misinterpretation of global warming equating to "it's hot out". If the predictions of heavy snowfall in the northeast comes to be, I'll be ready for the "so much for global warming" comments.

[Associate Justice PiT]

I think there's a mass misinterpretation of global warming equating to "it's hot out". If the predictions of heavy snowfall in the northeast comes to be, I'll be ready for the "so much for global warming" comments.

     Indeed, people don't really understand it. Global warming is a very gradual phenomenon. The average temperature of the planet has increased by 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last 50 years, and a third of the weather stations have actually recorded a decrease in that timeframe. Nobody is really feeling the difference.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

An even larger majority of American knows little to nothing about what drives weather events.  The high amount of ignorance toward atmospheric sciences in America is one of the reasons I decided early on that I could never do broadcast meteorology.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Obviously you have to understand the difference between weather and climate. You can't really say the temperature one day is because of global warming, after all weather is a chaotic system. But you can say that the general climate or the reduced ice levels in polar regions are because of climate change.

There are other changes besides warmer. There's dryer, wetter, and so on. The Gulf Stream is slowing down, which will ironically mean that the birthplace of the industrial revolution, England, will become colder.