Officials found in their survey that 60 percent of those surveyed across the Land of the Free believe that global warming is happening and that humans are at least partially responsible for rising temperatures. The new percentage passes the previous high of 58 percent noted by researchers in 2008, 2009 and 2017.
Of the 751 adults surveyed from April 29 to May 25 of this year, researchers also noted that 73 percent believed that there is solid evidence of global warming. According to officials, the revelation came about as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration announced that May 2018 had the hottest temperatures in the US since officials began keeping track in 1895.
"There's lots of evidence that contemporary weather is a contributing factor to believe in climate change," Chris Borick, one of the study's authors, told The Guardian. "But there are other factors."
"People are telling us they are experiencing a climate that isn't what they remember in the past and the evidence itself, such as declining polar ice, is having an effect. Americans are moving to a lot more confident space on this," he added.
When researchers looked into participants' party affiliations they found that some 90 percent of Democrats accepted that there is solid evidence of climate change, while 50 percent of Republicans also felt that way.
Borick told the publication that political persuasion is usually one of the biggest factors in influencing one's view on climate change.
"The talking points have turned more to the cost to mitigate climate change rather than deny its existence," the author said. "That said, if you want one factor that influences your view on climate change, it's party affiliation. Age, race and gender don't even come close."
Meanwhile, this week, millions of Americans have been placed under heat advisory warnings in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, California and Iowa, according to the National Weather Service.