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According to poll data released today (PDF), 53 percent of residents in the Portland Metro area believe that global climate change comes primarily from human activities. Another 33 percent believe it is caused by natural conditions, 11 percent 鈥渄on’t know鈥� and 3 percent don’t believe that climate change is occurring.

Adam Davis of polling firm DHM Research presented results of a recent poll on climate change at a Metro Climate Leadership Summit this morning. The telephone poll was conducted in March and surveyed 600 residents of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington Counties on the causes and results of climate change, as well as strategies Metro is looking at to address climate concerns.

Thirty-six percent of respondents said they somewhat or strongly supported creating more compact neighborhoods, while 48 percent said they opposed that idea. Seventy percent of respondents supported keeping a tight urban growth boundary, a plan 16 percent opposed.

DHM Research also conducted focus groups of urban, suburban, rural and young residents and business leaders. The takeaway from those groups, Davis said, was that sustainable community strategies should be connected to core values, not necessarily to climate change. Compact communities along light-rail lines might be good for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, for example, but residents show concerns with losing privacy and yards. If such a plan is connected with creating parkland and reducing the amount of time people spend waiting in traffic, it might be more popular.

Davis said that policymakers shouldn’t 鈥渞un from climate change鈥� when explaining policies, but they should make connections to core values. 鈥淵ou need to make connections for people or they default to neutrality or soft opposition to these ideas,鈥� Davis said.

The goal of today’s summit was to discuss how the region would meet state targets for greenhouse gas reduction from cars and light trucks.