The stats for the poll so far, around 60-30-10 for yes/no/not sure seem to fit pretty closely with the results from proper random sampling polls in the U.S. (in which the question is more specific in asking if people think humans are a significant cause of warming.)
The public is quite far behind where the science is on this question. A survey of scientists done this January found only about 3% active in climate science still question whether greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity are a major reason for global warming: http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf
I've done my own digging on the question of what scientists think, which you can review on my website listing climate scientists and those who've signed public statements either for or against the position that humans are impacting the climate (and that we thus need to cut emissions): http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~prall/climate/
I also found that climate "skeptics" make up only around 2 to 3% of scientists who are widely published and/or widely cited in this field.
Why is the general public so far behind the science on this question? It's likely some mix of the inconvenience of the news and unwillingness to face the changes it calls for; a lot of active P.R. campaigning by industries that see themselves most likely to be inconvenienced, namely big oil and coal (much of that P.R. funded by careful money laundering through foundations and "think tanks"); a small number of vocal "skeptics" willing to speak out against mainstream climate science, and actively promoted by an online network of contrarians including bloggers, talk radio and cable news; and finally, a bad habit the media have of framing any story as a "debate" and inviting one 'pro' and one 'con' "expert" - giving viewers or readers the mistaken impression that scientists are about evenly divided on that question. Take a look at the listings on my site, ranked by number of publications on climate or by number of citations by others of that author's work, and see for yourself where the climate 'skeptics' stack up against the mainstream scientists.
The public is quite far behind where the science is on this question. A survey of scientists done this January found only about 3% active in climate science still question whether greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity are a major reason for global warming:
http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf
I've done my own digging on the question of what scientists think, which you can review on my website listing climate scientists and those who've signed public statements either for or against the position that humans are impacting the climate (and that we thus need to cut emissions):
http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~prall/climate/
I also found that climate "skeptics" make up only around 2 to 3% of scientists who are widely published and/or widely cited in this field.
Why is the general public so far behind the science on this question? It's likely some mix of the inconvenience of the news and unwillingness to face the changes it calls for; a lot of active P.R. campaigning by industries that see themselves most likely to be inconvenienced, namely big oil and coal (much of that P.R. funded by careful money laundering through foundations and "think tanks"); a small number of vocal "skeptics" willing to speak out against mainstream climate science, and actively promoted by an online network of contrarians including bloggers, talk radio and cable news; and finally, a bad habit the media have of framing any story as a "debate" and inviting one 'pro' and one 'con' "expert" - giving viewers or readers the mistaken impression that scientists are about evenly divided on that question.
Take a look at the listings on my site, ranked by number of publications on climate or by number of citations by others of that author's work, and see for yourself where the climate 'skeptics' stack up against the mainstream scientists.