PRINCETON, N.J., March 11 (UPI) -- Forty-eight percent of U.S. residents asked now believe the seriousness of global warming is exaggerated, a poll by the Gallup Organization indicates.
The telephone survey of 1,014 adults found that Americans generally are less worried about the threat of global warming than they were a year ago, Gallup reported Thursday.
The organization's Social Series Environment poll conducted March 4-7 of this year found the average American is less convinced that global warming has already begun or will begin shortly than at any time since 1997, Gallup says.
"In a sharp turnaround from what Gallup found as recently as three years ago, Americans are now almost evenly split in their views of the cause of increases in the Earth's temperature over the last century," said Gallup.
In 2003, 61 percent of Americans surveyed said increases in global temperatures were due to human activities, but in 2010 only 50 percent say that is the case.
