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POLITICS

41% Say Global Warming Causes Extreme Weather, 43% Disagree

With hurricane season in full swing, Americans have mixed views on whether global warming is behind extreme weather conditions.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of American Adults believe global warming is creating climate changes that lead to more extreme weather events.  Forty-three percent (43%) disagree with that assessment, while 16% are not sure.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The latest findings show little change from January of last year. However, the number of Americans who feel global warming is linked to extreme weather is down 14 points from early June 2008 when 55% felt that way.  At that time, just 25% said global warming and extreme weather had no relation to each other.

Still, separate polling shows that 59% say global warming it at least a somewhat serious problem.  Just 37% do not think climate change is a serious issue.  These findings have remained fairly consistent for years now.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).  Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on August 26-27, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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