Why is the American public divided on climate change?
Many scientists have been working to determine when strange weather can be attributed to climate change.
I have focused my research on examining Americans’ understanding of how
strange weather and climate change are related. Here’s what I’ve found:
Political orientation determines attitudes toward climate change and extreme weather
Climate change has become an extremely politicized issue in U.S. discourse, largely thanks to the conservative movement. The fossil fuels industry and conservative think tanks have worked together to discredit the science of climate change. In a nation that is highly polarized politically, climate change has become a litmus test for political identity.
Survey after survey has consistently shown that Democrats and liberals
are more likely than Republicans and conservatives to believe that humans have an impact on climate change and that climate change will have immediate and serious effects. Republicans and
conservatives generally refuse the idea that the climate is changing
because of human intervention, in part because they are concerned about
the political implications: enforcement of regulatory actions on a massive scale.
No comments:
Post a Comment