It’s not just that Republicans don’t believe in human-caused climate change. It’s that, in spite of ever increasing evidence, in spite of repeated studies, in spite of events that are putting storms, floods, mudslide, fires, and rising seas right under their noses … Republicans are increasingly unlikely to believe in human-caused climate change. And they don’t even believe that scientists believe.
Fewer Republicans say they believe that there is a scientific consensus on climate change or that the effects of global warming have already begun, according to a new Gallup poll, which showed a widening partisan gap near record levels.
Apparently, Republicans are now so convinced that scientists are wrong, they believe that scientists don’t even know what scientists believe.
Gallup asked whether people agreed that most scientists believe global warming is occurring, and 42 percent of Republicans said yes, down from 53 percent a year earlier and back to a level last seen in 2014. Just 35 percent of Republicans said that they believe global warming is caused by human activities, down from 40 percent.
Considering that Republicans felt the economy went from awful to great on the day Trump was elected, and nearly half of Republicans think that any story they don’t like is automatically fake news, it shouldn’t surprising that Republicans are even worse in accepting the truth about climate change now, than they were four years ago.
But that they’re willing to openly state that scientists don’t believe what scientists are saying … seems like a extra-special level of denial.
The instant fix to the economy shows how Republicans are unable to differentiate between “I like it” and “It’s true.”
In comparison, Democratic attitudes about the economy sailed right across the election, continuing to look at the facts, rather than shading the facts to back their politics.
Just as with the economy and “fake news,” facts about climate change have become something that Republicans accept or deny as part of their political position. But then “What does Trump want me to say” is much more convenient than having to consider any facts.