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Two-thirds of Americans believe that climate change is either a crisis or a serious problem. The majority of them want immediate action to fight against global warming and its adverse consequences, revealed new polls.
In the midst of a Democratic primary shaped by an unprecedented alarm in the face of the climate crisis and a movement of young insurgents for the climate sweeping the world, polls show substantial, if not uneven, support for attack the problem.
More than a quarter of Americans surveyed in the new CBS News poll see climate change as a "crisis", with 36% considering it a "serious problem". Two in ten respondents said it was a minor problem, with only 16% of them saying it was not a concern at all.
More than half of the Americans surveyed said they wanted the climate crisis to be immediately confronted. The smaller groups were happy to wait a few more years and only 18% of them refused to act.
"Americans are finally beginning to realize the existential threat our climate emergency poses to our society," said Margaret Klein Salamon, clinical psychologist and founder of the Climate Mobilization Project. "This is a huge step forward for our movement – and it is the youth who are the main leaders."
But while almost everyone agrees that the climate is changing, there seems to be persistent confusion about the reason and scientists' trust in the causes.
Climate scientists agree that the world is heating up because of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels for the production and transportation of electricity, as well as the fact that the world is warming up. logging. However, just 44% of survey respondents said that human activity was a major factor in climate change. More than a quarter said our impact was minor or non-existent.
The conclusions of climatologists divide even more. According to a CBS survey, 52% of Americans say that "scientists agree that humans are one of the main causes" of the climate crisis, 48% stating that it is there is disagreement between the experts.
"This remains a misunderstanding of paramount importance. If you believe that global warming is a natural cycle, you probably will not be able to support policies to reduce carbon pollution, such as regulations and taxes, "said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale program on change. climate. Communication, which made similar findings in its own polls.
"These results also confirm a long-standing problem, that many Americans still believe that scientists themselves do not know if global warming caused by humans occurs.
"Our own research and that of other researchers has repeatedly shown that this was a critical misunderstanding, advocated for decades by the fossil fuel industry, to sow doubt, to create uncertainty of the public and thus keep the population stuck in the status quo. see & fashion. "
Similar to previous polls, CBS research reveals marked ideological differences in attitudes to the climate crisis. While nearly seven in ten Democrat voters understand that humans have a significant influence on the climate and that 80% want immediate action, only 20% of Republicans believe that humans are a prime cause and just a quarter want quick action.
On the scientific side, nearly three quarters of Democrats said that almost all experts agree that humans are at the root of climate change, with only 29% of Republicans saying the same thing.
Age is another key variable. While 70% of 18-29 year olds think that climate change is a serious problem or crisis, just 58% of people over 65 are in agreement. The youngest are much more likely to consider that it is personal responsibility to deal with the climate crisis and to believe that a transition to 100% renewable energy is viable.
Young people were galvanized by climate science taught in schools and by a globalized activist movement led by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teenager who launched a wave of strikes in schools demanding action. Thunberg recently arrived in the United States aboard a solar-powered yacht, in anticipation of the UN climate summit in New York on September 23.
According to the CBS poll, two-thirds of Republican voters under the age of 45 consider it's their job to tackle the climate crisis. Only 38% of Republicans over 45 have the same feeling.
"The youngest Republicans are much more convinced that climate change is a crisis and support the action of older Republicans, which has great implications for the future of the party," said Leiserowitz.
About three-quarters of respondents said they understood that climate change was melting the Arctic, raising sea levels and causing warmer summers. Two-thirds agree that global warming is making hurricanes worse. Hurricane Dorian, which recently devastated parts of the Bahamas, has worried over 38% of Americans in the face of the climate crisis, 56% of which have not been inflicted.
Leiserowitz said that the relationship between extreme weather events and concern about climate change is complex. The most worried people are more and more worried to say that their alarm has increased as a result of a major storm or flood.
Regardless of the concern over climate change, there seems to be American skepticism about what humans can do about it. Only 19% said humans could stop rising temperatures and associated impacts, with nearly half thinking it was possible to slow down but not stop the changes and 23% refusing to believe that humans could do what whether it be.
This could well influence the views of the climate plans of the main presidential candidates. The hopeful Democrat Bernie Sanders, for example, has proposed a rapid remodeling of society: emissions from transportation and electricity generation that warm the planet are eliminated in just 11 years.
"By saying that we should simply slow down and not reverse global warming, we passively accept the death of billions of people," said Margaret Klein Salamon of the Climate Mobilization Project.
"The only thing that can protect us is total mobilization at our fingertips, as we did during the Second World War. Avoiding the collapse of civilization and restoring a secure climate should be the top priority of all governments – at the national, regional and local levels. "
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