Scientists tread carefully through a seemingly endless landscape of ice, sea, and meltwater in the Canada Basin of the Arctic on July 22, 2005. The blanket of ice coating Earth's northernmost seas was thin and ragged in July, setting a record low for sea ice extent for the month. Sea ice stretched across only 3.06 million square miles whereas the long-term July average is 3.9 million. Scientist note that this breakup of ice is a result of global warming. Photo made from the U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy. UPI/Jeremy Potter/NOAA |
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DURHAM, N.H., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Americans' knowledge of the world's polar regions has increased since 2006 but has not translated into more concern about polar environments, a study has found.
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire conducted an analysis of queries about the polar regions which were included on the General Social Survey in 2006 and 2010 and covered topics such as climate change, melting ice, rising sea levels, and human or ecological impacts from environmental change.
"People's knowledge of polar regions and issues improved from 2006 to 2010, consistent with hopes that the International Polar Year in 2007 would boost public awareness," UNH sociology professor Lawrence Hamilton said in a university release Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, we did not see a companion increase in concern about the environmental changes in these regions, due, in part, to ideological and political divisions."
While concern about climate change in the polar regions showed no up or down trend, and there were no changes in support for reserving the Antarctic for science, the researchers said there has been an increase in political disagreement between Democrats and Republicans on climate-related questions.
"Among the environment-related issues, all but reserving Antarctica for science show increasing political polarization -- and even support for reserving the Antarctic divides along party lines," Hamilton said.
"Polar issues, like many other topics in science, increasingly are viewed by the public through politically tinted glasses," he said.
