美国公众对全球变暖的认知和对气候政策的支持

利用民意调查数据，以相关研究作为补充，分析美国公众对全球变暖的认知、减缓行为和气候政策的支持等。分析表明，大部分美国民众认为全球在变暖，但很多人不了解全球变暖与温室气体的关系，把全球变暖混为大气污染和臭氧层耗竭等；不到一半的公众认为全球变暖对个人和美国是现实威胁，更多的公众认为全球变暖对后代和发展中国家是严重威胁；大部分公众认为减缓全球变暖需要改变现有的生活方式和行为，他们愿意选择较容易从事和成本低的行为减少碳排放，但不愿意从根本上改变生活方式，改变自驾车、乘飞机长途旅游这些碳排放量更大的行为；公众普遍支持政府采取措施限制温室气体排放，但不希望所采取的措施对就业和经济带来不利影响；支持通过技术进步和减免税收等措施提高能效，减少碳排放，但大部分反对为节能而提高能源税收。

American Public Understanding of Global Warming and Support for Climate Policy

Based on poll data and related researches,this paper analyzed American public understanding of global warming,mitigation behavior and support for climate policy.It is found that a majority of the public believe that global warming exists,but many don’t know the relation between global warming and greenhouse gases,and confuse global warming with local air pollution and depletion of ozone in the upper atmosphere.Less than half of the public regard global warming as a serious problem for USA’s individuals and the society,whereas most of them think that global warming is a serious threat to future generations and developing countries.Most of the public recognize the necessity of changing lifestyle to reduce global warming,and have engaged in simple and low-cost behaviors to reduce carbon emissions.However,they are not ready to give up private cars and long distance air travel.The majority of the public support the federal government to control carbon emissions with the precondition that control measures will not hurt economy and employment.The preferred possible measures include developing vehicles and household appliances that use less energy,whereas increase in energy taxes is generally refused.