Writing in Mother Jones, Chris Mooney's article POLL: Tea Party Members Really, Really Don't Trust Scientists, describes new polling data from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, whose leader researcher Lawrence Hamilton has found a huge "science gap" between traditonal Republicans and those who identify with the tea party. He asked 568 New Hampshire residents "Would you say that you trust, don't trust, or are unsure about scientists as a source of information about environmental issues?"
This is pretty striking: The first three political groups—Democrats, independents, and non-tea party Republicans—all trust scientists on the environment. But then you come to tea party members, and suddenly, distrust in scientists soars. The numbers are stark: 60 percent of traditional Republicans trust scientists on the environment, versus only 28 percent of tea partiers.
So what's going on with this plummeting trust in scientists on the ideological right? The main factor, Hamilton thinks, is that the highly polarized climate issue is leading climate deniers to break up with scientists in general. "Climate change is sort of bleeding over into a lower trust in science across a range of issues," says Hamilton. That means the consequences are not limited to the climate issue. "The critiques of climate science work by often arguing that science is corrupt, and then that spills over to other kinds of science," Hamilton observes. Prior research has found that watching Fox News, in particular, leads to a declining trust in climate scientists.
The new data on trust in science comprise just one part of Hamilton's new report. The study also looked at partisan gaps on a number of other scientific issues, and compared the size of those gaps with those that exist on non-scientific issues. And again, the result was pretty surprising: In New Hampshire, there is a bigger partisan divide over climate change and whether environmental scientists are trustworthy than there is over abortion and the death penalty. Note that in this analysis, unlike in the earlier figure, Republican responses include both those of traditional Republicans and those of tea partiers. It is the latter who are driving much of the partisan gap on issues like trust in science:
I bolded the line that watching Fox News seems to be the causal factor leading to a distrust of science. Also earlier today I learned that the Koch brothers and the fossil fuel industry has been leading a campaign modeled after the one led by the tobacco industry and described in the famous book "The Merchants of Doubt," to sow doubt about climate science and attack the credibility and reputations of climate scientists.
Let's hope that as we gain a more focused understand of what the problems are and where they are coming from we will form better responses to overcome them. I am encouraged that as I wrote a few days ago, our problem is not with all Republicans.
We have hope that as those Republicans concerned about our national security, the strength of our economy, our educational system, our agricultural productivity, and the productivity of our workforce, realize how dire our predicament is, which they not only have he intellectual and educational capacity to do, but as I predicted several days ago, many already realize this and just enjoy "tweaking our circuits" to enjoy seeing liberal get "freaked out."
Now that they realize how urgent our situation is and that time is running out, I believe they will join us in bipartisan efforts to snap these tea party folks out of their delusional fantasies so we can take on the the realities of our global warming challenges head on.
7:11 PM PT: Thanks to Elwood Down for calling our attention to the small sample size of 568 which gives this poll a very large sampling error or over 8% which he says this pollster is famous for. Thanks Elwood.
Here's a new CBS Poll
Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto and Fred Backus of CBS News report that Tea party support hits new lows: Poll.
The tea party was an important factor in the 2010 elections, but its support may be waning, according to a new CBS News poll. Today, just 15 percent of Americans say they are supporters of the tea party movement - the lowest since CBS News began asking about the tea party in February 2010. The tea party reached its highest level of support (31 percent) in November 2010, soon after the midterm elections.
The movement may be losing some of its core constituency -- Republicans. 32 percent of self-identified Republicans now consider themselves supporters of the tea party - down 10 points from February and a decline of 23 points from July 2010, the summer before the Republican Party took control of the House of Representatives. The percentage of Republicans who identify as tea party supporters is now among the lowest in CBS News Polls.
This is a short article so I can't really use a full three paragraphs. Americans seem disillusioned with both a parties with 45% say it makes no difference which party controls Congress things will go on as before.
You can see the complete poll with break downs here:
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10:21 PM PT: If you enjoyed this post please check some of my others from today or last last night. I'm still commenting in all of these.
