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Gallup has a new survey out tracking the changing opinions on Climate Change: is it real? will it affect you in your lifetime? do you believe most scientists agree that it is man-made? And the results show a distinct change in the past year:

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.

In 2007, 61% of those surveyed believe that the cause of the rise was due to human activity and only 35% attributed it to natural causes. Today, the split is 50/46 (50 believing it's due to human activity).

Those numbers indicate a stunning reversal. What's more remarkable, though, is that the percentage of scientists that believe Climate Change is real and is caused by human activity is unchanged. And yet, those Americans that were surveyed believe that number has dropped:

Roughly half of Americans now say that "most scientists believe that global warming is occurring," down from 65% in recent years. The dominant opposing thesis, held by 36% of Americans, is that scientists are unsure about global warming. An additional 10% say most scientists believe global warming is not occurring.

Clearly, the facts are losing out to a PR charade. Most Americans, who know relatively little about how the scientific process works, are being duped into thinking that scientists are part of a large conspiracy cabal who's goal is to lie and mislead the public into spending hundreds of billions of dollars addressing a non-existent phenomenon.

The Gallup survey summarizes:

Some of the shifts in Americans' views may reflect real-world events, including the publicity surrounding allegations of scientific fraud relating to global warming evidence, and -- perhaps in some parts of the country -- a reflection of the record-breaking snow and cold temperatures of this past winter. Additionally, evidence from last year showed that the issue of global warming was becoming heavily partisan in nature, and it may be that the continuing doubts about global warming put forth by conservatives and others are having an effect.

Kevin Drum, over at Mother Jones, takes these implications farther:

The Republican Party has largely decided that climate change simply doesn't exist. It's a hoax. And that leads them to oppose everything, even programs that have light footprints, don't cost a lot of money, and don't require massive regulation. After all, why should they support them if the problem they address literally doesn't exist?

That does sum up the problem and why these numbers have changed so dramatically. Science has been politicized to the maximum extent, largely because a portion of the population just wishes that human-caused Climate Change would go away. It's easier to believe in something that doesn't cause you harm than it is to embrace the reality of a phenomenon that will cost lots of money to fix.

It's really that simple, unfortunately. And why Kevin Drum is correct when he says:

This is why so many environmentalists have switched gears recently, suggesting that climate change action should be disguised as energy research, national security programs, or competition with China for market share in windmills and solar panels. And maybe that will work for a while. But just saying something doesn't exist doesn't make it so. Eventually even the GOP is going to have to acknowledge this.

But will the GOP really ever acknowledge it? And if they do, will it be too late?

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