New Poll Finds Shallow Support for Climate Action, Partisan Split
By Breakthrough Senior Fellow Roger Pielke, jr., cross posted from Prometheus
Yesterday's E&E News PM (subscription) has an interesting article about a new poll out on U.S. view of climate change, sponsored by a set of environmental groups and consultants. It supports many arguments that we have made here at Prometheus, such as the fact that support for action on climate change is broad but shallow, the public generally accepts a significant human role in climate change, and Al Gore has played a big role in making the issue partisan (an even more interesting finding because Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection is a sponsor of the poll). I don't have the poll yet, but have requested it. Meantime, here is an excerpt from the E&E News PM story:
A relatively small percentage of Americans strongly believe that climate change requires urgent action, according to a comprehensive survey conducted by a coalition of environmental groups.
The analysis sponsored by ecoAmerica, the Nature Conservancy, the Alliance for Climate Protection and others found that 18 percent of Americans "expressed strong agreement with a set of questions expressing belief that global warming is real, that it is caused by humans and that it is harmful."
And while a strong majority of the public believes that climate change is happening, according to the analysis, they also have a "who knows/who cares" attitude toward dealing with the problem. For that reason, activists hoping to rally public support for climate initiatives must use messaging centered around the development of green technology, lifestyle improvements, and improving health and the environment, the groups say.
"We need to talk about global warming as an American issue, not a political issue," said Bob Perkowitz, founder and chairman of ecoAmerica. "We intend to make a clear and convincing case that solving global warming will produce immediate and long-lasting economic, personal and national benefits."
Partisan split
The public's perception on climate change is linked closely to party affiliation, according to the survey.
Roughly 90 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of independents are "convinced that global warming is happening," but 54 percent of Republicans share such a view.
The biggest such party split was related to former Vice President Al Gore.
Seventy-one percent of Democrats agreed with the statement that they "believe what Al Gore has to say about global warming and climate change," compared to 22 percent of Republicans -- a difference of 49 percent. Similar, though smaller, splits of 30 percent or more existed on other questions related to climate change's impacts and potential solutions.