There is more doubt among Americans on the issue of global warming, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
"The survey included a set of questions we have asked on other occasions: whether [global warming] is happening, how big of a problem it is [and] whether the government should do something," said Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center.
The report found that 59 percent of the U.S. believed that there was evidence of global warming, down from 79 percent in 2006. In 2006, about 50 percent of Americans thought global warming was caused by humans, while today only 34 percent do. The number of people stating that global warming was a serious problem dropped from 43 percent in 2006 to 32 percent as well.
Christopher Schlottmann, NYU associate director of environmental studies, said he believes the changing attitude can be explained by the economy.
"In bad economic times, as now, people prioritize their economic welfare over most other issues, including climate change," Schlottmann said. "The recent rise of the far right, and significant increase in industry funding in elections, has increased the power of the movement of denying climate change."
Patrick Egan, professor of politics at NYU, said it was "very, very unlikely that anything will happen regarding global warming within the next two years."
"We're seeing this reflected in public opinion," Egan said. "Elite opinion of global warming is affecting public opinion. The decision of leaders to do nothing is reflected in that people are less likely to believe that [global warming] is a problem."
Irina Feygina, a doctoral student in the Psychology Department at NYU, said she believes climate change has been treated differently than similar scientific fields.
"What is interesting about the issue of climate change is that the scientific community is very certain that it is taking place and has a great deal of information about it, but people are very doubtful about their findings and distrustful of their conclusions," Feygina said.
NYU has also been taking steps to raise environmental awareness on campus.
Jeremy Friedman, manager of sustainability initiatives at NYU, spoke of the importance of fostering a campus culture of sustainability, in which students are not only aware of climate change but also engage in taking an active role in confronting the crisis.
"NYU conducted a survey in 2007, which showed that 94 percent of NYU students felt responsibility for the future condition of the environment, but that far fewer knew how they could help or understood how climate change worked," Friedman said. "We are planning to do another survey in the near future which will measure how these responses have changed after three years of the NYU Sustainability Initiative."
Feygina remains concerned with where public opinion is heading.
"People seem to actively deny and downplay some of the most concerning facts and climate change, and in particular, the human role in causing and exacerbating it," she said.
