22 January 2019•Update: 22 January 2019
By Umar Farooq
WASHINGTON
A record number of Americans know that global warming is happening, and the majority of them understand that humans are causing it, a new study released Tuesday found.
The poll, which was conducted last year, found that around 73 percent of Americans believed that global warming was happening, an increase of 10 percentage points since 2015. The number of people that are "extremely" or "very" sure that global warming is real increased to 51 percent since that year, a rise of 14 percentage points.
The report also found that a large majority, 69 percent, are at least "somewhat worried" about the impact global warming will have on the earth.
"People are beginning to understand that climate change is here in the United States, here in my state, in my community, affecting the people and places I care about, and now," Anthony Leiserowitz, a director of the program conducting the poll, told The New York Times. "This isn’t happening in 50 years, 100 years from now."
However, while the majority of Americans understand that the change in climate is caused by humans, only 20 percent understand that nearly all climate scientists have concluded human-caused global warming is happening.
The new poll reflects two reports on climate change submitted last by both the U.S. and the United Nations, which outlined disastrous prospects for the world if countries did not reduce their greenhouse gas emissions that have contributed to global warming.
The poll was conducted by a collaboration between George Mason University and Yale University. It surveyed 1,114 American adults from November to December.
