Yale Poll Finds Strong Bipartisan Support for Clean Energy
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An extensive new Yale poll (PDF) shows strong bipartisan support for clean energy and policies that encourage it. I charted some of the most interesting findings:
Question 155:
Question 173:
Question 179:
Brian Merchant highlighted some of the same findings:
This effectively means that pretty much the entire nation thinks we should be pushing waaay harder to develop clean energy sources. As in, vast majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans support more investment in clean energy. And yet policymakers respond to this overwhelming (and longstanding) demand by continuing to funnel far more federal handouts to oil companies than to the clean energy sector.
Andrew Freedman flagged some less encouraging data:
The poll showed that 40 percent of respondents said the statement “There is a lot of disagreement among scientists about whether or not global warming is happening” comes closer to their view of global warming. This is befuddling, since every study that has sought to quantify the so-called “scientific consensus” on global warming, either by polling climate scientists or examining peer reviewed scientific publications, has reached the conclusion that there is very little disagreement among scientists that the earth is warming and human activities are, at least in part, to blame for it.
…
In a related question, just 13 percent of the 1,010 adults surveyed in the poll answered the following question correctly: “To the best of your knowledge, what proportion of climate scientists think that global warming is happening.” The correct answer was the response, “82 to 100 percent.”
The poor public knowledge on these types of questions can be attributed to a deliberate misinformation campaign. To wit, A December 2010 University of Maryland study (PDF) found that “those who watched Fox News almost daily were significantly more likely than those who never watched it to believe that most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring.” Garbage in, garbage out.
The full study can be accessed here (PDF).
Update — Farron Cousins has more at DeSmogBlog.
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