Americans Disagree Sharply on Climate Change

First posted on 11-07-2008

A recent study commissioned by The Nature Conservancy shows that Americans are sharply divided in their beliefs about climate change.

The American Climate Values Survey (ACVS), conducted by consulting group EcoAmerica, discovered that, while 73 percent of participants in the study said they felt global warming was occurring, only 18 percent of survey respondents said they strongly believed that climate change is real, harmful and caused by human behaviors.

Perhaps even more interesting was that political party affiliation was the single biggest indicator of how people felt about the threat of climate change. While 90 percent of those participants who said they were Democrats believed the Earth is warming, only 54 percent of those who identified themselves as Republicans felt the same way.

The political party trend continued to be the single largest factor in nearly all questions posed of participants in the study:

77 percent of Democrats felt that weather has gotten more severe. 44 percent of Republicans agreed.

71 percent of Democrats trusted Al Gore’s climate change messages while just 22 percent of Republicans did.

71 percent of Democrats believed environmentalists who discuss global warming to 38 percent of Republicans.

75 percent of Democrats said they trusted anyone who talks about global warming while 39 percent of Republicans exercise the same level of trust.

Despite these wide margins in believing whether climate change is real, people who support changes and solutions is quite a bit higher.

95 percent agree that even if people are not causing global warming, reducing pollution is still worthwhile for health reasons.

82 percent agree that manufacturing alternative energy equipment like wind turbines and solar panels is a good way to create jobs in the United States.

85 percent of respondents said they were interested in electric or hybrid cars, if nothing more than to fight higher gasoline prices.