A Gallup survey released yesterday shows that, other than conservative Republicans, most Americans thinks they will experience (or are already experiencing) global warming in their lifetime.
Only 37 percent of Republican respondents believed that “the effects of global warming will happen in this lifetime,” and 40 percent said “global warming will never happen. This is significantly higher than the percentages of moderate/liberal Republicans (16%), non-leaning independents (14%), conservative/moderate Democrat (5%) and liberal Democrats (3%) who say the same.”
When it comes to the cause of rising temperatures, most conservative Republicans don’t blame human activity.
“Of the major political identities, conservative Republicans are the only group in which a clear majority (70%) attribute increasing terrestrial temperatures to natural changes in the environment. By contrast, majorities of Democrats and independents say global warming is due to effects of pollution from human activities. Moderate/liberal Republicans are split on this issue.”
Liberal Democrats, however, were the only group to view “global warming as a serious threat to their way of life, a judgement not reflected in any of the alternate political identities.” Compared to 58 percent of liberal Democrats, just 46 percent of conservative/moderate Democrats, 35 percent of independents, 30 percent of moderate/liberal Republicans, and 12 percent of conservative Republicans think climate change is a serious threat.
While this survey shows that the GOP still doesn’t have a great understanding of climate science, it also shows that if you ignore political extremists, most of the country actually agrees on the issues: The effects of global warming, which is caused by human activities, will be noticeable in our lifetime. Hopefully Congress will catch up to the rest of America and take action.
