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Energy and industrial lobbies only wish they had the sway the article granted them. Until environmental activists start talking to the American people about the economic costs of implementing an agenda, they will not get the popular, and therefore legislative, response they seek. Members of Congress, bless their bleak, treacherous hearts, still value getting reelected over anything else. As long as the public is not convinced that the benefits of an environmental policy outweigh the costs, Congress will not get the message from constituents that something needs to be done.

Republican leaders, though, were only too happy to cast cap and trade as “cap and tax.” In the process, they helped scare away senators who had long supported this very idea, like Lindsey Graham. The sad paradox is that cap and trade — which trusts in the efficiency of markets — was originally a Republican policy, signed by the first President Bush to reduce acid rain, and disliked at the time by many liberals.

The Senate has not acted on global warming for several reasons, but not because of scant public approval. Contrary to the July 12 front-page story, public support for action on climate change remains strong. The Post's own June poll found that 71 percent favor action to "regulate the release of greenhouse gases" -- an increase since your poll in December. Americans clearly want investments in clean-energy jobs and to slash climate pollution. Whether 60 senators listen, or 41 follow big oil, is the real question.

Regarding poll findings about climate change, Mr. Krosnick posits that his question is more legitimate than others. It is but one approach and hardly ideal. The question’s preamble is “you may have heard about the idea that the world’s temperature may have been going up slowly” and then asks whether this is “probably” happening. Such wordings often encourage a positive response: this is known in the polling world as acquiescence bias.

When senators vote on emissions limits on Thursday, there is one other number they might want to keep in mind: 72 percent of Americans think that most business leaders do not want the federal government to take steps to stop global warming. A vote to eliminate greenhouse gas regulation is likely to be perceived by the nation as a vote for industry, and against the will of the people.

“Public perception has been radically impacted by a short campaign’’ by climate skeptics, said Grubb, who is also chairman of the advisory group Climate Strategies at the University of Cambridge. “That is deeply troubling if you want a sensible long-term solution to climate change.’’

More than 90 percent of all scientific communities worldwide acknowledge that climate change is in fact man-made and the threats it poses are imminent. Unfortunately, this knowledge is often lost in translation, as a 2009 survey of the Pew Research Center for the People

WASHINGTON — In its most comprehensive study so far, the nation’s leading scientific body declared on Wednesday that climate change is a reality and is driven mostly by human activity, chiefly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

The bill aims to reduce reliance on foreign oil while putting a price on carbon emissions and providing billions of dollars in incentives for industry to drastically cut greenhouse gases.

“Right now what people are fearing has not materialized,” said Edward B. Overton, professor emeritus of environmental science at Louisiana State University and an expert on oil spills. “People have the idea of an Exxon Valdez, with a gunky, smelly black tide looming over the horizon waiting to wash ashore. I do not anticipate this will happen down here unless things get a lot worse.”