For a study I have under review, I recently sifted through hundreds of polling questions about global warming culled from more than 70 surveys conducted over the past twenty years. Poll results on global warming often become an ideological Rorschach Test, with one side in the policy debate citing polls as reflective of a public demanding action, while the other side claiming that polls reveal an American citizenry unwilling to bear the economic costs of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. A systematic, peer-reviewed summary of the available public opinion evidence might help guide journalists, scientists, and policymakers in figuring out exactly what Americans think about the topic.

For example, since 1997, Gallup has consistently asked the public what they thought about media coverage of the global warming debate. The public appears split, with approximately a third believing that news coverage is “generally exaggerated,” approximately a third believing that news coverage is “generally correct,” and a final third believing that in news coverage the problem is “generally underestimated.” In this final category, however, there does appear to be some significant change over the past ten years, with the proportion of Americans believing that news reports generally underestimate the global warming problem shifting from 27% in 1997 to 38% in 2006.

The question wording and results follow below:

Thinking about what is said in the news, in your view is the seriousness of global warming–generally exaggerated, generally correct, or is it generally underestimated?

Dates: 11/97,03/01,03/02,03/03,03/04,03/05,03/06,

Generally exaggerated % 31,30,31,33,38,31,30

Generally correct % 34,34,32,29,25,29,28

Generally underestimated% 27,32,32,33,33,35,38

Don’t know/Refused% 8,4,5,5,4,5,4

N 1,003,1,060,1,006,1,003,1,005,1,004, 1,000