Poll: Americans less worried about climate change, sub-Saharan Africans more concerned

By Andrew Restuccia - 04/20/11 04:21 PM ET

Europeans and Americans have become less concerned with climate change in recent years. But concern among people in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa has grown, Gallup polling shows.

Globally, the number of people who say they view climate change as a threat has remained steady over the last several years. Gallup found 41 percent of people surveyed in 11 countries in 2007 and 2008 felt threatened by climate change. That number went up slightly to 42 percent in 2010.

But on a country-by-country basis, attitudes about climate change have shifted. For example, 63 percent of those polled in the United States in 2007 and 2008 said they viewed climate change as a threat. That number dropped to 53 percent in 2010.

Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have increasingly raised questions about climate science and sought to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions. The Gallup poll comes after a study by a Michigan State University sociologist showed that partisan divides over climate change have grown in the last 10 years.

The Gallup polling data show similar drops in Canada, Western Europe and the Middle East over the same time period.

The inverse was true in regions like Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. For example, in 2007 and 2008, 67 percent of those polled in Latin America said they viewed climate change as a threat. In 2010, 73 percent saw it as a threat.

A Gallup analysis of the data attributes the increasing concern about climate change in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa to extreme weather events.

“These relatively high figures among Latin Americans may be partly attributable to the bad rainy seasons and flooding that leaders in the region such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have linked to global warming,” the analysis says. “Countries that were hit particularly hard by floods, such as Ecuador and Venezuela, saw residents' likelihood to view global warming as a threat surge in 2010.”