From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. As global temperatures continue to rise, so does the number of Americans willing to acknowledge the threat of slow apocalypse.

A Monmouth University poll released Thursday found that about eight in ten Americans, including

almost two-thirds of Republicans, believe that climate change is causing hotter heat waves

and harsher storms.

The Monmouth poll, if it reflects reality, suggests that the trend towards denial found

by a Gallup poll in March is reversing.

So good, bad news, you could say?

This latest poll was conducted before the White House released the National Climate Assessment

on Black Friday for maximum obscurity.

But word did get out.

Government scientists saying climate-related threats to America's physical, social, and economic

well-being are rising.

The report says extreme weather in the U.S. just in the past three years has cost nearly

$400 billion.

Stronger hurricanes and more frequent flooding.

For the Midwest, an agricultural catastrophe, extreme heat destroying crops.

This was the fourth congressionally mandated national climate assessment.

1600 pages derived from the collective expertise of 13 government agencies.

I'm no scientist, but it sounds pretty scary.

Scarier still, after the self-described very good brain in the White House,

reacted with four of his very best words.

...