Americans continue to send mixed signals about the dangers of climate change, but 47% reject the idea that they are selfish putting economic concerns ahead of the fight against global warming.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 29% of adults take the opposite view and believe Americans are being selfish for putting the economy first. Twenty-four percent (24%) are not sure.

Investors are even more emphatic: 53% say Americans are not being selfish by putting economic concerns first. Fifty-four percent (54%) of those employed in the private sector agree, while government workers are almost evenly divided on the question.

A plurality of Democrats (42%) say Americans are being selfish, while 68% of Republicans and 45% of adults not affiliated with either party disagree.

Americans are closely divided over whether there is a conflict between economic growth and environmental protection, but 65% say creating jobs is more important than taking steps to stop global warming. Fifty-six percent (56%) aren’t willing to pay more in taxes and utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming.

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Still, 52% of all Americans agree with President Obama that “the danger posed by climate change cannot be denied, and our responsibility to meet it must not be deferred.”

Thirty percent (30%) don’t agree with the president’s statement made earlier this week to a United Nations summit meeting on climate change. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure.

Women by a more than three-to-one margin share the president’s view, but men are narrowly divided over the statement. Among investors, 51% say Obama is right, while 38% say he’s wrong.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of Democrats and a plurality (46%) of unaffiliateds agree with the president’s comment. Fifty percent (50%) of Republicans do not.

But Americans are almost evenly divided on another statement made by the president this week. When asked if the world is headed toward an irreversible catastrophe if the members of the United Nations fail to deal with global warming, 38% say yes, but 36% say no. Twenty-six percent (26%) aren’t sure.Again, the partisan divide is predictable. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Democrats say the U.N. must act to avoid catastrophe, while the identical number (57%) of Republicans reject that view. Unaffiliated adults are narrowly divided.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of adults say they have followed news reports about a pending U.N. treaty to slow global climate change, including 27% who say they have been following very closely.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of U.S. voters say global warming is at least a somewhat serious problem, with 35% who regard it as very serious. Forty-seven percent (47%) global warming is caused by long-term planetary trends rather than human activity. Forty-two percent (42%) blame human activity, but voters have been trending away from blaming humans since January.

Eleven percent (11%) of Americans now rate the U.S. economy as good or excellent, but 52% see it as poor. Thirty-two percent (32%) say it’s getting better, while 44% say it’s getting worse.

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