Big Surprise: Tea Partiers Don't Believe in Global Warming

This is more unsurprising news. According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, it turns out that folks who identify themselves with the tea party are more likely to deny or question the existence of global warming, with only 25 percent of this faction of the GOP saying that global warming is a reality. That stands in stark contrast to the 67 percent of Americans (including 61 percent of Republicans) who say they believe that the world is warming.

            My guess about this is that tea party folks are twofold: First, it seems to me that many in the tea party are prone to believing fantastical unreal things. Barack Obama was born in Kenya, despite evidence to the contrary; Barack Obama is a Socialist, despite evidence to the contrary; Barack Obama is a Muslim, despite evidence to the contrary. Many in the tea party believe this stuff. Second, the folks who say they are in the tea party are more likely to get their “news” from Fox News, which has done really questionable reporting on climate change, as well as from talk radio, which can be even worse when it comes to global warming and mendacity.

            Given their disproportionate influence on the GOP, as well as the rest of our politics—remember these folks brought you the partial government shutdown—the misinformation and ignorance on the climate that the tea party embraces is even more destructive and dangerous than their partial government shutdown.

Global Temperatures Increase, Concern Wanes

A recent worldwide survey by GlobeScan Radar, a public opinion research consultant company, found that concern about global warming and other environmental issues has hit a 20-year low. The survey covered 22 countries, including the United States

            Despite even more conclusive evidence of a warming world, only 49 percent of respondents considered global warming a serious problem. Fewer people also considered polluted waters, species going extinct, and other environmental concerns as being “very serious.” This is probably good news to coal companies, oil companies and other polluters, but it is probably bad news for the rest of us, whether we are among the concerned or unconcerned crowd.

            What has happened? It could be several things. Journalism is undergoing a grand transformation, and perhaps this affects the public’s ability to follow environmental stories that usually have a long narrative arcs and can contain concepts that can be difficult to understand. Industry propagandists, such as the Heartland Institute and Heritage Foundation, may have become more successful with their messages.

            People also tire and “tune out” longstanding news stories, and we may be at a point when hearing about increased droughts and melting icecaps has fatigued us to where we are no longer listening. The chairman of GlobeScan, Doug Miller, says, “Evidence of environmental damage is stronger than ever, but our data shows that economic crisis and lack of political leadership means that the public are starting to tune out.”

Though the Sea Is Rising, the Tide May Be Turning

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