A new statewide poll finds that nearly two-thirds of Californians believe that global warming is having an impact on the state's persistent drought.
The findings released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California come as Gov. Jerry Brown presses for tougher climate change standards. The Democratic governor recently returned from a climate summit at the Vatican.
The poll shows 79 percent of residents think global warming is a very serious or somewhat serious threat to California's quality of life. Democrats were more likely than independents and Republicans to call the threat very serious.
A majority of adults also opposed increased use of fracking to extract oil and natural gas from underground rock formations.
The telephone poll of 1,702 California adults was conducted July 12-21 and had a sampling error margin of 3.7 percent.
