More information about global warming

A new study that maps public opinion about global warming in the United States finds that Washingtonians are more concerned about rising temperatures than people in any other place.

Seventy-four percent of residents of the District worry about global warming compared with a national average of 52 percent, study data indicate. In Pickett County, Tenn., by contrast, just 38 percent of the public is worried about warming, the lowest level in the nation.

“These differences are partly due to the fact that different groups often think differently about the issue, ” said Peter Howe of Utah State University, the lead author of the study, which also was supported by researchers at Yale University.

Levels of concern about global warming have been strongly tied to political party affiliation. A Yale University study conducted last year found that 81 percent of Democrats are worried about global warming, compared with only 19 percent of conservative Republicans. About 75 percent of registered voters in the District are Democrats, which plays a key role in local global warming attitudes.

Among the states (among which the District is considered for the purposes of this study), Washington, D.C., residents lead the nation in their beliefs that:

* Global warming is happening (81 percent)
* Global warming is caused mostly by human activities (61 percent)
* Most scientists think global warming is happening (64 percent)
* Global warming is already harming people in the United States (57 percent)
* Global warming will harm me personally (47 percent)
* Global warming will harm people in the United States (67 percent)
* Global warming will harm people in developing countries (72 percent)
* Global warming will harm future generations (80 percent)

Washingtonians are also the most supportive of policies to combat global warming, the study finds.

The least belief in and concern about global warming (and the least support for action) tends to be focused in the central United States, northern Rockies, and in big coal states such as West Virginia and Wyoming. The Northeast and the West Coast, by contrast, are hotbeds of global warming belief and concern.

This generalized pattern of global warming attitudes across the United States has long been appreciated. But this study, for the first time, shows how attitudes about global warming can vary dramatically at much finer scales.

For example, a user can zoom into the greater Washington, D.C., region and learn that 62 percent of residents in Montgomery County, Md., believe global warming is mostly caused by human activities compared to 48 percent in Fauquier County, Va.

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