Americans’ concern about several major environmental threats has eased after increasing last year. As in the past, Americans express the greatest worry about pollution of drinking water, and the least about global warming or climate change. CONT. Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup Read more »
Worries About Terrorism, Race Relations Up Sharply
Out of 15 domestic issues, Americans’ concerns about terrorism and race relations have risen most sharply over the past year. The percentage of Americans who worry “a great deal” about the possibility of a terrorist attack (51%) climbed 12 percentage points from 2014 to 2015, while concerns about race relations […] Read more »
Fewer Americans Say Winter Colder Than Usual
Despite record-low temperatures in many parts of the country in February, the 51% of Americans who say temperatures in their local area have been colder than usual this winter is down from the 66% who said this about last winter. CONT. Rebecca Riffkin, Gallup Read more »
The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change as a Gateway Belief: Experimental Evidence
… Using national data (N = 1104) from a consensus-message experiment, we find that increasing public perceptions of the scientific consensus is significantly and causally associated with an increase in the belief that climate change is happening, human-caused and a worrisome threat. In turn, changes in these key beliefs are […] Read more »
Is the Environment a Moral Cause?
ACCORDING to a recent poll, a large majority of Americans, and roughly half of Republicans, say they support governmental action to address global warming. … How could it be that so many Republicans view global warming as a problem, but so few on the right are pressuring the government to […] Read more »
Partisan bias about climate change is more prevalent than you think
Why do Democrats and Republicans differ so much on the fundamental science of global warming? A key reason is the politicization of climate science. Politicization means emphasizing the inherent uncertainty of science in order to cast doubt on the existence of a scientific consensus. … Unfortunately, our new research shows […] Read more »