A recent study analyzed 20 years of Gallup environmental surveys to understand how Americans think about climate change. The study found that while political party is the strongest indicator of climate change views, it does not explain everything. Younger Republicans, for example, are more open to renewable energy and less supportive of fossil fuel expansion than older Republicans.
Key Findings
The study identified several key findings, including that climate polarization deepened after 2017, with Democrats and independents becoming more concerned about global warming, while Republicans remained less worried. The study also found that education does not erase the partisan gap, with college-educated Democrats being more supportive of climate policies, but better-educated Republicans remaining skeptical.
The study’s findings suggest that American opinions on climate change are polarized but not fixed, with a large group of people holding complicated and sometimes inconsistent views. This ‘mixed middle’ group is the largest of the three Gallup clusters, with 10,617 respondents, compared to 6,682 who are highly concerned about climate change and 3,102 skeptics.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
