Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said they did not think global warming would cause any harm to them personally. But 42 percent saw it as an imminent threat.

“When I was little, we were taught to reduce and recycle but I thought, ‘Oh, I’m not going to be around,’ ” said Lauri Tupper, of Salisbury, N.Y. “But now that I have a daughter, it’s scary knowing that what is going on right now could become worse.”

A 31-year-old Democrat, Ms. Tupper said, “I get called a tree-hugging hippie all the time.”

Partisan and generational divides were reflected throughout the survey. About half of Republicans considered the economy more important than the environment, while nearly two-thirds of Democrats said the environment should take priority.

While 18 percent of Republicans did not think global warming was real, only 3 percent of Democrats agreed. Sixty-one percent of Democrats said global warming was causing an impact now, compared with only 26 percent of Republicans.

More than seven in 10 of those 65 and older expected to see no impact from global warming in their lifetimes, but many younger people did, including 50 percent of those under 30. The nationwide telephone poll was conducted using landlines and cellphones Sept. 10-14 with 1,000 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points. The complete methodology and survey results are at nytimes.com/polls.