Nearly half the nation’s voters still believe that global warming is caused primarily by long term planetary trends, not human activity.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 47% of voters blame global warming on planetary trends, while 37% of voters take the opposite view and blame human activity. Just 5% point to some other reason.

Voters continue to believe the president holds the opposite view. Fifty percent (50%) say President Obama blames global warming on human activity, while only 20% think he blames planetary trends. But another 21% are not sure what the president believes.

These results come as the White House may have to push back plans for its aggressive legislation to combat global warming. That effort included new spending on green technology and jobs but may be too much due to the high level of government spending already accumulated this year.

Belief that human activity is the primary cause of global warming has declined significantly over the past year. In April of last year, the numbers were nearly the mirror image of the current numbers. At that time, 47% blamed human activity and only 34% named long term planetary trends as the reason for climate change.

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Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters consider global warming to be a serious problem, including 34% who see it as very serious. The number who see it as a Very Serious problem has declined seven points since January and thirteen points since April 2008.

Most voters (58%) view finding new sources of energy as more important than reducing the amount of energy now consumed by Americans, a finding that has remained fairly consistent throughout the year. A third of voters (34%) take the opposing view and say it is more important to reduce energy use.

California is expected to implement energy-conserving regulations any day now that manufacturers and retailers say will in effect ban the sale of big-screen TVs in the state. But new polling shows that 66% of Americans oppose a law that would effectively ban the sale of big-screen televisions to save energy.

Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters support the building of more nuclear power plants in the U.S., while 35% are opposed. While the number who see a need for more plants is relatively unchanged from last month, the number opposed is up nine points since that time.

On just about everything concerning energy policy, there is a significant partisan divide. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Republican voters blame global warming on planetary trends, while half of Democrats (50%) blame human activity. Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters not affiliated with either party blame planetary trends.

More than half of Democrats (52%) consider global warming to be very serious, compared to just 18% of Republicans and 29% of unaffiliateds.

Forty-four percent (44%) of voters now see a conflict between economic growth and environmental protection, up six points over the past month. That finding is more consistent with results found earlier in the year. Only 31% do not see this conflict, but another 25% are undecided.

Past polling showed that 35% of Americans favored the climate change bill intended to curb global warming that was passed by the House in June.

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