Climate change advocates more certain of beliefs than are naysayers, Yale finds

The following article was published on Examiner.com May 9, 2013. It has been lightly edited.

The pummeling Long Island Sound suffered from Tropical Storm Irene and Superstorm Sandy showed us here in Connecticut that climate change is not some far-off intangible. And more recently, the flip from 60 degree day in New York to a biting snowstorm the next just last week should be a climate denier's wakeup call.

Of course, not everyone has rallied around the climate change camp (Fox News).

Yale Climate Project released in 2013 an extensive study in accessible PDF form that shows how climate change advocates are far more firmly entrenched in their beliefs than are doubters. The study,  "Climate Change in the American Mind: Americans' Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in April 2013" is a good read for anyone who doubts the science (or anyone who doesn't).

Yale scientists and students have nicely illustrated their points, which include:

• A majority of Americans believe global warming is happening

• Those who believe global warming is happening are more certain than those who do not

• Half of Americans believe global warming is human caused

• About four in ten Americans believe most scientists think global warming is happening

• Nearly half of Americans believe global warming is a threat to themselves, their families, and their local communites

Investigators from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communications, including Anthony Leiserowitz, PhD and Edward Maibach, MPH, PhD culled some interesting data to substantiate these numbers. For example, of the 63 percent of Americans who believe global warming is happening, most (or 33 percent) say they are very sure of this belief, while 27 percent say they are "extremely sure".

Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Images: by US EPA - "The Greenhouse Effect" in: "Introduction," in: US EPA (December 2012) Climate Change Indicators in the United States, 2nd edition[1], Washington, DC, USA: US EPA, p.3. EPA 430-R-12-004., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27013490