On the heels of last year’s Pew study showing that the majority of Americans believe in climate change, researches at Yale University have further blurred the lines by demonstrating that the majority of Republicans do in fact support the reduction of carbon pollution.
By polling a wide range of Republicans—liberal leaning, moderate, conservative, and Tea Party members—researchers have shown that, overall, 56 percent of Republicans support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Predictably, the subdivided percentages reflect how far right each group leans: 71 percent of liberal Republicans and 74 percent of moderate Republicans believe carbon dioxide should be regulated, while only 54 percent of conservatives and 36 percent of Tea Party Republicans do.
When the Atlanta Tea Party, for example, joined with the Sierra Club in 2013 to argue for Georgia homeowners’ right to install solar roofing panels, there was party philosophy—though not necessarily environmental—at play.
However, when asked about their thoughts on global warming in general, the party was a bit more hesitant. While the majority of self-identified liberal and moderate Republicans believe global warming is real—68 percent and 62 percent, respectively—that number drops to 38 percent of conservative Republicans and a dismal 29 percent of Tea Partiers.
To reach these numbers, Yale’s Project on Climate Change Communication aggregated data from six national surveys, conducted between 2012 and 2014. In all, responses from 5,513 registered voters—2,330 of whom identified as Republican or Republican-leaning—were taken into account. The survey incorporated all socioeconomic groups (researchers even provided laptops and Internet access to a portion of the panel).
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