HQ Team
September 15, 2023: American voters who express negative opinions about academics are most likely to believe climate change is not caused by humans and is not a problem for the US, a study says.
A study by University of Cambridge’s assistant professor, Ramit Debnath and Caltech’s Danny Banks revealed that about 45% of US voters believe climate change isn’t a problem at all.
Forty-one per cent of voters believe that climate change is a natural phenomenon not caused by humans.
“This lack of trust in higher education and evidence-based research makes the public more vulnerable to opinion-based arguments from powerful actors who disproportionately profit from climate denialism,” Prof Debnath said.
Extreme weather events
There has been a rise in weather events such as wildfires, flooding and hurricanes like Idalia, this year. These have become wetter, windier and more intense because of rising global heat.
Increasing catastrophic weather events such as wildfires, flooding and hurricanes like Idalia this year have become wetter, windier and more intense because of rising global temperatures.
In Libya, at least 11,300 people died due to flooding caused by storms. Rescue efforts are still on as bodies are buried and the search for the missing continues.
The UN has issued an emergency appeal for funding.
Trust in institutions
The Cambridge study took all the variables, such as age, gender, race, education and region into consideration.
“The most statistically significant factor in driving climate denialism was trust in institutions,” the authors wrote in the journal PLOS Climate.
The co-authors said that the distrust in climate science was one of the challenges to the successful implementation of climate action policies, such as carbon taxes, congestion charges and efforts to end sales of the most polluting vehicles.
“If voters don’t believe in the proven outcomes of fundamental research, then how can politicians make the changes we need in the next decade to stop climate change?” Prof Debnath said.
Republicans, Democrats
Young registered voters were most likely to trust institutions, according to the study.
The study results indicated that those aged 45 to 64 and those aged 65 and older were less likely to say that climate change is an important problem.
“We also see that women are more likely than men to say that climate change is an important problem.”
When it came to party lines, relative to Republicans, Democrats were more likely to say that climate change is an important problem.
“And relative to conservatives, those who identify as moderates or liberals are more likely to say that climate change is an important problem in the US.”
No trust in climate scientists
The paper referenced a 2016 US poll, in which 57% of conservative Republicans were found to believe that climate research findings were influenced by scientists keen to advance their careers.
The 2016 poll found that up to 22% of Americans declared they had no trust or not much trust in climate scientists.
The current study urged universities and scientists to re-establish public trust with improved science communication and provide public education that helps people to discern facts from opinions.
It called for improvements in the curriculum on understanding the scientific process at primary and secondary schools and persuading trusted religious leaders and influencers to pass on the proven facts of climate science.
“If science wants to move the dial on the climate crisis, then we need to get out of our ivory towers and make regaining the public’s trust a key mission for every university,” Prof Debnath said.
