What looked like the Green Movement’s unstoppable momentum has stalled out recently, as Americans rethink the costs of some of the more draconian proposals to rid the world of industrial carbon dioxide. [emphasis, links added]
As skepticism grows, the movement to slash CO2 at all costs also may be nearing an end, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
Americans have become increasingly wary of the “net zero” and other modern-day green movements after so many of their doom-filled prophecies of imminent environmental disaster failed to come true.
In its national online poll taken Mar. 26-28, I&I/TIPP asked 1,452 poll respondents the following opening question: “Which of the following best describes your view of the current climate change movement?”
Those taking the poll, which has a +/-2.6 percentage point margin of error, were asked to choose from six possible answers:
The first answer was that the climate change movement “is a necessary response to a serious global crisis.” It garnered 39% support, more than any other single response.
However, taken together, the remaining five responses portray a broad range of skepticism of the green movement among the rest of those who took the poll.
Within this group, 16% said, “It has gone too far and is driven more by politics than science,” while 20% agreed: “I’m concerned about the environment but skeptical of climate alarmism.”
Another 5% said, “I used to support it but now question its motives and impact,” and 11% noted, “I don’t believe climate change is a significant issue.”
The remaining 9% said they were not sure.
So a majority (52%) expressed different degrees of skepticism about the climate change movement, its motivations, its impacts, and its significance for the future.
However, within the demographic breakdown of the data, two large differences emerge. One is political affiliation.
Among Democrats, 57% believe that the green movement is a “necessary response to a serious global crisis,” while just 25% of Republicans and 37% of independents agreed.
Where a respondent lives also plays a major role, with those living in the Northeast (37%), Midwest (33%), and South (37%) far less likely to see the green movement as a “necessary response,” while out west, the number was much higher: 50%.
The West’s reputation for green-inflected politics, it seems, is well deserved.
In a second question, I&I/TIPP posed a more concrete policy query of respondents, namely:
“The Trump administration has proposed rolling back federal climate regulations, including reversing the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and revising the estimated ‘social cost of carbon’ — a calculation used to justify green energy mandates. Do you support or oppose these efforts to reduce federal involvement in climate policy?”
This time, a plurality of 41% of those answering said they either “support strongly” (23%) or “support somewhat” the “rolling back” of stringent federal climate rules.
But not too far behind was the 37% of Americans who said they either “opposed strongly” (25%) or “opposed somewhat” (12%) any weakening of climate regulations.
Ideology, as is often the case, plays a big role.
Seventy percent of those who self-describe as “conservative” support weakening federal environmental rules, with just 14% opposed.
Self-identifying moderates, meanwhile, give 29% support, but 45% opposition, to the easing of green laws. And those who call themselves liberals show just 24% support, but 63% opposition to the idea.
Similar splits were seen by party affiliation, as the chart below shows.
So is the green movement dying, if not already dead? It sure looks like it’s trending that way.
Read rest at Issues & Insights
