'A tipping point': record number of Americans see global warming as threat

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/18/climate-change-record-concern-us-global-warming-poll

New polling data shows that public concern about climate change is at a new high, as the US emerges from its warmest-ever winter

'A tipping point': record number of Americans see global warming as threat
Oliver Milman
Friday 18 March 2016 14.05 EDT

A record number of Americans believe global warming will pose a threat to their way of life, new polling data shows, amid strengthening public acceptance that rising temperatures are being driven by human activity.

“I think a shift in public opinion and consciousness has been underway for several years now,” Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, told the Guardian.

A spokesman for 350 Action, the political arm of climate activist group 350.org, said meanwhile that politicians who cast doubt on climate science would soon have to take such polling into account. Republicans, he said, “are going to be screwed if they don’t change their tune”.

Polling firm Gallup, which has been tracking public sentiment on the topic annually since 1997, found that 41% of US adults feel warming will pose a “serious threat” to them during their lifetimes. This is the highest level recorded by Gallup, a 4% increase on 2015.