Poll: Global warming fears cooling

(CNN) - Americans' perceptions of the issue of global warming appear to be cooling.

In a Gallup Poll released Monday, 51 percent of respondents said they "worry a great deal or fair amount" about global warming, down from 66 percent in 2008.

Forty-one percent of respondents also said that the seriousness of global warming is "exaggerated"– the highest amount of skepticism in the survey since it was first conducted in 1997.

The belief that global warming is exaggerted was higher among respondents who identified themselves as Republicans, 66 percent, than those who identified themselves as Democrats, 20 percent. Forty-four percent of those who identified as independents also said the issue is exaggerated.

The Gallup Poll was conducted via telephone among 1,021 adults from March 3-6. The survey has a sampling error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.