A recent poll* conducted by the University of Michigan indicated that among the American public, the number of people who believe that humans are causing climate change has rebounded after declining in 2009. This is encouraging news.
The survey found that 62% of respondents believed global warming was occurring, while only 26% held an opposing view. This 62% is the highest level since 2009, when 65% of respondents said they believed that climate change was occurring, the highest level of positive responses since this survey on climate change began several years ago.
Curiously, almost 80% of Democrats believe in climate change, while less than half of GOP members said they believed in global warming. This is most likely because of organizations such as the Heartland Institute, which work to cast doubt on the science of global warming. Besides being aligned with large industries, professing a conservatism that maintains capitalism as a core of its ideology, and denying the existence of global warming, these groups are closely aligned with the GOP.
Also, for those who doubt that climate change is occurring, the fingerprints of the rhetoric used by the Heartland Institute and other organizations like them can be found in the responses of those who said they doubt the existence of climate change. With scientific work in global warming going back to the 1800s and the greater part of the science of climate change being quite solid, these organizations know that they cannot cast doubt on the science of global warming, nor can the deny the occurrence of earlier springs, melting glaciers, and the first frosts coming later in the fall. Rather, they attack and try to besmirch the reputations of the scientists investigating global warming. As Christopher Borick and Barry Rabe, authors of the report that summarizes the results of the poll say:
While Americans who think the planet is warming largely disagree with the premise that the media and climate scientists are overstating evidence about global warming, most citizens who do not see evidence of increasing temperatures on Earth believe that scientists and the press are distorting evidence on the matter. In terms of scientists, more than 8 out of 10 Americans who don’t think global warming is occurring believe that scientists are overstating evidence about global warming for their own interest.
After hundreds of years of scientific tradition, with its admitted setbacks and occasional instances of fraud, the group of scientists who investigate the workings of our atmosphere is overrun with dishonest investigators who distort evidence for selfish interests. That is what the Heartland Institute would have us believe. This is silly, but the survey shows that people believe it.
Other findings of the poll are interesting. More women than men believe that we are living in a warmer world, and though his name is bandied about when it comes time to discuss climate change, Al Gore has had very little influence on anyone believing or disbelieving in global warming.
The results of the survey are encouraging. With a greater percentage of Americans cognizant of the phenomenon of global warming, despite the efforts of the Heartland Institute and organizations like them, effecting policy changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may be a possibility. Still, much work needs to be done to raise awareness. The industry that impugns the reputation of climate scientists will continue with its assaults, and they have big money on their side. After that the greatest obstacle to mitigating climate change is institutional and societal inertia. That will be the big challenge.
*http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2012/02_climate_change_rabe_borick/02_climate_change_rabe_borick.pdf
"the group of scientists who investigate the workings of our atmosphere is overrun with dishonest investigators who distort evidence for selfish interests"
ReplyDeleteI've never yet heard or read a sensible explanation of what these scientists are supposedly getting in exchange for risking their careers and reputations in this way. Where are all these billionaire climate scientists? Who is supposed to be paying them off and why?