The National Registry of Environmental Professionals (NREP) is a the largest U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 non-governmental environmental accrediting organization, and is recognized by the US Department of Energy

United States Department of Energy

The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...

 and Environmental Protection Agency

United States Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...

. NREP has about 12,000 members worldwide, including managers, technicians, and other professionals working on operations and management related to regulatory matters such as compliance with air, soil and water pollution regulations.

Climate change survey

In November 2006, NREP published the results of a survey conducted among its membership on the issue of climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

. 793 responses were received from 47 states including Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 and Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

. Survey findings included:

• 82 percent think global warming
  Global warming
  Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
  
   is a real, measurable, climactic trend currently in effect
• 67 percent agree the U.S. is not doing enough to address the effects of global warming
  Effects of global warming
  This article is about the effects of global warming and climate change. The effects, or impacts, of climate change may be physical, ecological, social or economic. Evidence of observed climate change includes the instrumental temperature record, rising sea levels, and decreased snow cover in the...
  
  
• 66 percent consider the rate at which global warming may be occurring is a serious problem facing the planet
• 59 percent respond that current climatic activity exceeding norms calibrated by over 100 years of weather data collection can be, in large part, attributed to human activity
  Attribution of recent climate change
  Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent changes observed in the Earth's climate...
  
  
• 40 percent consider the automotive industry the most important industry to regulate in immediate public policy steps to address global warming
• 39 percent rate carbon emissions as a whole to be the most important human activity to regulate as part of effective public policy response to global warming