"First, the easy part:
Most Americans who responded to a Gallup poll on weather agree it's been unusually warm lately. When asked whether the unseasonably high temperatures were the result of global warming, however, there was less consensus.
Gallup
asked 1,024 adults if, in the event they said it was warmer where they lived, "do you think temperatures are warmer mainly due to -- global warming (or to) normal year-to-year variation in temperatures?"
The group found Americans' answers broke down along political lines:
Overall, Americans tilt toward the latter explanation; 46% say the winter was warmer than usual due to normal temperature fluctuations, compared with 30% who attribute it to global warming.
However, these views are strongly related to political orientation. Specifically, 51% of both Republicans and independents say it has been warmer than usual due to normal temperature variations, while 19% and 28% of the two groups, respectively, say it was warmer due to global warming.
Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to say the warmer-than-usual temperatures have been due to global warming rather than to normal temperature fluctuations, by 43% to 37%.
In general, Republicans were less likely to agree, in the first place, that it has been warmer than normal. Gallup attributes this to geography -- most of the unseasonable warmth has been in the Midwest and the East, where there generally are more Democrats.
Also, Americans' ages and educational levels do not appear to influence their views on the causes of the heat as much as their politics do. All age groups and educational groups were more likely to say the heat is the result of something other than global warming. Gallup summarizes the poll as follows:
It is fair to say that most Americans do not have the scientific background or available resources to make an accurate assessment of the cause of what they perceive to be this winter's warmer-than-usual temperatures. Thus, Americans, when asked to speculate on the cause of the warmer temperatures, must rely on what they have read, heard, or seen. The types of discussions Americans read, see, or hear on this issue, in turn, are clearly related to their political orientations."
I was curious why some members were so stubborn in that subject but reason seems to be political rather than being scientific!!