Why does Y!A disagree with polls on global warming?

Question

Polls show that about 80% or 85% of Americans believe that global warming is a serious problem, at least to future generations if not now. Yet the people on Yahoo Answers seem hostile to the notion that global warming exists. Why do you think there is such a big mismatch between Y!A and national polls?

Answer 1

Y!A is simply not an accurate cross-section of the population.  You can see this in the politics section as well, where a huge percentage there are Ron Paul supporters.

In the case of global warming, there are basically 3 categories.

1) People who are familiar with the scientific evidence and agree with the scientific consensus.

2) People who are not very familiar with the scientific evidence, but generally agree with the consensus.  This is the largest group.

3) People who are either unfamiliar with the scientific evidence or deny its accuracy, and (usually for political reasons) believe global warming to be a big hoax.

There are several Category 1 people who frequent this Y!A section.  Category 2 people don't have much reason to frequent the section.  They're not experts, nor do they disagree with the general consensus.  They can be happy to be in the majority and leave it at that.

The Category 3 people are in the minority and believe they see a massive hoax being perpetrated on the public (or have a vested interest in making it seem like this is the case), and so they are very motivated to try and convince people that they're correct.  Of course they rarely succeed since their arguments are of such poor quality, but that's why they're more strongly represented on Y!A than in reality.

Answer 2

Do you have a link? I'd love to see the polls saying 85% of the US population believe in AGW.

And the fact that you say "believe". Sounds more like a religion than a science.

Answer 3

I think YA is being used to spin the issue by both sides.  Some of the positions on both sides are just ridicules.  Actually I would not be surprised if some of the contributors are paid by a lobbing organization.

Answer 4

people always lie on polls but us at y!a always tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth

Answer 5

I believe the planet is warming.I just don't believe that humans are causing it.

As far as polls are concerned,I have seen polls that show exactly the same number as you have posted,but when asked would you pay a tax to help rectify the situation,those numbers drop dramatically.

That drop makes me wonder how worried these people really are.

Answer 6

Did you study the polls carefully as to exactly how they asked the questions, who they asked, what they asked, etc.?

Specifics are necessary to draw a real conclusion.

Answer 7

Note that the vast majority of scientists are in accordance with the general population.  Proof:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/fu...

The wikipedia entry is not opinion, but a list of easily verifiable facts.

Face it, Yahoo answers is not Harvard.

Answer 8

Wow!  Now global warming is real because the polls show that a majority believe it's real.

I've never known science to something that is voted on.

Since the consensus of people world wide believe UFO's are real, does this mean that Martians are real as well?

Answer 9

How about this poll of climatologists.  What do you think of this. And please do not shoot the messenger.  If you think they have misinterpreted the data, please tell me how.

http://downloads.heartland.org/2086111.p...

But I would have to say that the polls accurately reflect y/a.  According to one of the links you provided  "When asked about the causes of rise in the world's temperatures, 31% feel it is caused by the things people do, 19% feel it is due mostly to natural causes, and 49% feel it is a combination of the two."