80 pc Americans consider global warming as serious problem for U.S., finds poll

London, Dec. 16 (ANI): A growing majority of Americans think that global warming will become a serious problem for the US, and that the government should do something about it, a new poll has found.

According to the Associated Press-GfK Poll, even most people who said that they don't trust scientists on the environment believe that temperatures are rising.

The poll found that four out of five Americans said climate change will be a serious problem for the United States if nothing is done about it.

That's up from 73 percent when the same question was asked in 2009, the Daily Mail reports.

The poll found that 57 percent of Americans said that the U.S. Government should do a great deal or quite a bit about the problem.

Only 22 percent of those surveyed think little or nothing should be done, a figure that dropped from 25 percent.

Overall, 78 percent of those surveyed said they believe temperatures are rising, up from 75 percent three years earlier.

Within that highly skeptical group, 61 percent now said that temperatures have been rising over the past 100 years.

That's a substantial increase from 2009, when the AP-GfK poll found that only 47 percent of those with little or no trust in scientists believed the world was getting warmer.

"This is an important development because, often in the past, opinion about climate change doesn't move much in core groups - like those who deny it exists and those who firmly believe it's an alarming problem", Jon Krosnick, a Stanford University social psychologist and pollster, said.

Nearly half, 49 percent, of those surveyed called global warming not just serious but 'very serious,' up from 42 percent in 2009.

Broken down by political party, 83 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of Republicans said that the world is getting warmer, the report added. (ANI)