COLUMN: Climate change: Are you 'alarmed' or 'dismissive'?

Global Temperature Change as calculated by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. In this chart, the analysts used mean annual temperatures based on data compiled from meteorological stations. The period from 1951 to 1980 was set, in this chart, as zero or “the base period.” The key conclusion of this chart is that overall temperatures are, indeed, climbing.

Editor's note: This post is part of a series by Dr. Baker on Our Values about core American values. This week Dr. Baker is discussing American attitudes toward climate change.

Doesn’t the weather seem a bit out of whack? The period between fall and spring was the winter that never was. I didn’t fire up my snow blower even once. The early start to summer was glorious — I even went boating on Ford Lake over a month ago. It’s all quite nice, but at least to me, a little unsettling, too.

Could I be one of The Alarmed? The Alarmed are one of six types of Americans, based on beliefs about climate change and global warming. The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication documented these six types a few years ago, and have been tracking them ever since. This month, they issued their latest report on the six Americas.

If you are absolutely sure global warming is taking place and that human activity is the main cause of it, then you might be one of The Alarmed. Members of this group are convinced by the scientific evidence about climate change. The Alarmed know a lot about climate change and what they know worries them. They believe global warming has already caused harm, and that it is a threat to them and to future generations of Americans.