More likely to say global warming exaggerated, Gallup polling suggests

Forty-two percent of Americans believe news reports exaggerate the seriousness of global warming, while fewer people think the seriousness is generally correct or underestimated, a Gallup Inc. poll found.

{mosads}In the poll conducted in early March, Americans were most likely to say news reports generally exaggerated the seriousness of global warming, Gallup said Monday. Thirty-three percent said the seriousness was underestimated and 23 percent said the reports are correct.

“These sentiments are lower than the record 48 percent who believed this four years ago, but higher than any year before Barack Obama became president,” Gallup said.

Opinions on the seriousness of global warming reports have generally been steady since 2011. Since Gallup first took the poll 1997, the percentage of Americans who think global warming news is exaggerated has risen.

Republicans are far more likely to think that global warming is exaggerated, at 68 percent, compared with 18 percent of Democrats.

The 2014 poll found that 60 percent of Americans believe most scientists agree that global warming is happening, while 8 percent think scientists do not believe in global warming and 29 percent are not sure if the scientific community has come to a consensus.