A researcher interviewed 425 randomly selected US residents and asked about their views on the current climate change consensus. The table below summarizes the responses of the interviewees.

$$ \text{Views on Climate Change} $$ $$ \begin{array} {|l|c|} \hline \hphantom{1em}\text{Response} & \text{Frequency} \\ \hline \text{Strongly agrees} & 141 \\ \hline \text{Somewhat agrees} & 205 \\ \hline \text{Neutral} & 33 \\ \hline \text{Somewhat disagrees} & 25 \\ \hline \text{Strongly disagrees} & 21 \\ \hline \end{array} $$

If the population of the United States was 450 million when the survey was given, based on the sample day for the 425 US residents, what is the best estimate, in millions, of the difference between the number of US residents who somewhat agrees to the current climate change consensus and the number of US residents who somewhat disagrees or strongly disagrees to the current climate change consensus?

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Let's find the difference between those who somewhat agree and those that somewhat or strong disagree.

$$ \text{Views on Climate Change} $$ $$ \begin{array} {|l|c|} \hline \hphantom{1em}\text{Response} & \text{Frequency} \\ \hline \text{Strongly agrees} & 141 \\ \hline \text{Somewhat agrees} & \colorbox{aqua}{$205$} \\ \hline \text{Neutral} & 33 \\ \hline \text{Somewhat disagrees} & \colorbox{yellow}{$25$} \\ \hline \text{Strongly disagrees} & \colorbox{yellow}{$21$} \\ \hline \end{array} $$ $$ \text{Difference}=205-(25+21) $$ $$ = 159 $$

The difference is based off of 425 US residents. We can use a proportion to scale it up to the entire US population.

$$ \frac{159}{425}=\frac{x}{450 \text{ million}} $$ $$ 159(450)=425x $$ $$ x \approx 168 \text{ million}$$