"What Americans believe about climate change depends almost entirely on their political affiliation and not their scientific understanding, according to a new national study that found the same dynamic in two regions of Southeast Alaska.

Democrats who claim knowledge of the issue appear to be in firm agreement with the nation’s leading scientific organizations — that human activity and greenhouse gas emissions have become the main drivers behind an accelerating global climate shift.

But Republicans don't buy it. While most do agree that the climate has begun to change, they mostly blame the phenomenon on natural forces that lie beyond human control.

Falling between these two ends of the belief spectrum are independent voters and those who say they don't know much about climate change."

Doug O'Harra reports for the Alaska Dispatch April 25, 2011. [2]