Why does Y!A disagree with polls on global warming? Polls show that about 80% or 85% of Americans believe that global warming is a serious problem, at least to future generations if not now. Yet the people on Yahoo Answers seem hostile to the notion that global warming exists. Why do you think there is such a big mismatch between Y!A and national polls?

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7 months ago

dpj5: There are lots of polls. Here%26#039;s one:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/2...

I use the word %26quot;believe%26quot; because most people are not climatologists. They see and hear things in the media and come to a conclusion, without being familiar with the mountains of detail that go into research.

7 months ago

Here are a couple of other recent polls:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/...
(88% say GW threatens future generations.)

http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm
(See last question: 79% say very serious or somewhat serious problem for the future if nothing is done.)

These polls are from major polling companies, not from environmental groups.

7 months ago

correction: The last link above lists many polls. I was referring to the last question in the second poll (but other polls are reasonably consistent).

Philip F: You%26#039;re definitely right about the financial side. Accepting global warming is different from wanting to pay to fix it.

Dana1981: Good analysis. Polls show that few Americans believe that the moon landings were hoaxes, but the Astronomy and Space section of Y!A gets a huge number of questions from people who believe they never happened.

7 months ago

Dr. Jello: You%26#039;ve made a strawman argument with a weirdly hostile answer. I never said that a majority belief (whether of scientists or laymen) is always correct. I simply pointed out that the opinions expressed on Y!A appear to disagree with those expressed in polls.

7 months ago

mt_zion_crusader: There%26#039;s lots of evidence from elections in recent decades that polls are quite accurate. They%26#039;re not infallible; the poll for the Democratic primary in New Hampshire was off by an exceptionally large amount, about 15%. But even a 15% downward adjustment would change my question from 80-85% to 65-70%, so the basic premise still holds.

7 months ago

eric c: I appreciate the link, but didn%26#039;t want this to turn into a fight over whether global warming is real, or whether there is a consensus among scientists. I was more interested in the difference between the Y!A community and the American population (as indicated by many polls).
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/fu...

The wikipedia entry is not opinion, but a list of easily verifiable facts.

Face it, Yahoo answers is not Harvard.

But I would have to say that the polls accurately reflect y/a. According to one of the links you provided %26quot;When asked about the causes of rise in the world%26#039;s temperatures, 31% feel it is caused by the things people do, 19% feel it is due mostly to natural causes, and 49% feel it is a combination of the two.%26quot;

Wow! Now global warming is real because the polls show that a majority believe it%26#039;s real.

I%26#039;ve never known science to something that is voted on.

Since the consensus of people world wide believe UFO%26#039;s are real, does this mean that Martians are real as well?

people always lie on polls but us at y!a always tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth