Agreement Among Environmental Scientists

U.S. general public adults are very positive about science. For example, 79% of Pew’s 2014 telephone survey of American adults believed that science has made life easier for most people (Funk, Rainie, & Page, 2015). Seventy-two percent in the 2012 General Social Survey (GSS; Smith, Marsden, & Hout, 2015) felt the benefits of science outweighed any harmful effects (Besley, 2014). American adults express interest in science, access science news on the Internet, and visit local science museums. Their confidence in scientists is second only to the military (Funk et al., 2015). They hold U.S. science achievements in high regard and believe that science improves the human condition (Besley, 2014; Funk et al., 2015). At the same time, and in contrast to a 2014 Pew online sample of scientists (Funk & Rainie, 2015), U.S. adults are more cautious about evolution, vaccine safety, and genetically modified foods. Directly relevant to our subsequent Powell article, in 2014, 37 percentile points separated adults from U.S. scientists on human activity contributions to climate change (Funk & Rainie, 2015). And, again contrasting with scientists, Americans more often than residents of many other industrialized countries believe that “natural factors” rather than man-made activities contribute to climate change. Citing 2012 Pew Research Center data, Besley (2014) reported that: