Most Americans believe that global warming is the cause of the extreme climatic changes taking place in the United States.
According to a new nationally representative survey that measures American sentiment on climate change, more than 50 percent of Americans today blame global warming for the worsening weather conditions in the U.S. these days.
While two in every three Americans feel that climatic conditions of the country have deteriorated in the last ten years, only one in every 10 Americans is hopeful that this condition may improve in the future.
While nearly 50 percent of the population also believes that global warming turned the droughts that plagued the Midwest and the Great Plains more severe, 46 percent of the American population also believes that climate change aggravated the effects of Superstorm Sandy.
"Americans are continuing to connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather in the United States," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. "They're associating climate change with some of the major events that we experienced last year, like the ongoing drought."
Majority of Americans also believe that global warming was responsible for last year's record-breaking temperatures. 2012 was stated to the warmest year on records in the U.S. by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Nearly 85 percent of the population also confirmed personally experiencing extreme weather conditions like extreme heat (51 percent) to extreme high winds (60 percent) over the last year.
The study was conducted between April 8 and April 15 where 1,045 participants were interviewed, and was funded by the Surdna Foundation, the 11th Hour Project, the Grantham Foundation and the V.K. Rasmussen Foundation.