Photo by Ria Puskas on Unsplash
"Americans continue to be deeply politically divided over how much human activity contributes to climate change," according to a new Pew Research Center survey (June 23, 2020) with results little different from a similar survey conducted in October 2019.
Respondents were asked to indicate to what degree they think human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels contributes to global climate change: a great deal, some, not too much or not at all to climate change.
Overall, 49 percent of respondents said that human activity contributes a great deal to climate change, while 30 percent said that it contributes some, 12 percent said that it contributes not too much, and 6 percent said that it contributes not at all.
But 85 percent of liberal Democrats said that human activity contributes a great deal, while only 62 percent of moderate/conservative Democrats, 36 percent of moderate/liberal Republicans, and 14 percent of conservative Republicans agreed.
"Views about the role of human activity in climate change also vary by education among Democrats, but not among Republicans," according to Pew. Views also significantly varied by race and ethnicity among Democrats.
The survey was conducted from April 29 to May 5, 2020, among 10,957 on-line panelists, selected to ensure correct demographic representation. The margin of error at the 95% level of confidence for the entire sample is +/- 1.4 percent.
