Even more evidence that we are loosing the war for the public mind over climate change. A new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicates that the number of Americans that think the earth is warming is declining: by 14% in just 18 month! (Read the entire Pew report here)

This is despite the efforts by the tireless bloggers at ClimateShifts and other more respectable venues. I think the economic crisis and a variety of social and political issues (and hang ups) underlie the decline in the number of people that think warming is serious. But why are so many minds being changed about the very premise of issue; that the earth is warming?! I think this is largely being caused by articles and essays claiming the earth is cooling or that climate change has plateaued (or “taken a break”) that are very common in newspapers, on cable news, talk radio and on the blogosphere.

And it isn’t just conservative republicans whose minds are changing. Look at the drop in independents that see solid evidence of global warming, from 79% in 2006 to 53% in 2009:

Only 18% of republicans believe in AGW, but only 50% of democrats?! Could there be something wrong with this survey?

The biggest drops were seen among moderate/liberal Republicans and in the Great Lakes region and Mountain west:

Read the entire Pew report here