Which county in Texas has the highest rate of support for a carbon levy in the state? Yale’s new research maps can tell you!
WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE A LOOK
The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication has been keeping the pulse of public support for climate policies and belief in global warming for several years now. These interactive maps are a comprehensive collection of current trends.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Climate change is real, but why? 63% of Americans believe that global warming is happening, but only 48% believe it is human caused and 34% still believe scientists disagree on human causation.
Yes to regulating carbon pollution, no to a carbon tax. 74% of Americans supported regulating carbon dioxide emissions, but when you asked about specific policies like a revenue neutral carbon tax, the support dropped below 50% across the country.
Coastal agreement. Nationally 48% of Americans believe global warming is human caused. When you break that down by state, you see high levels of support in coastal areas like California and the Eastern Coastal states in New England, with less agreement away from the coasts. Interestingly, places that are facing greater current climate impacts like Florida, Illinois, Colorado and New Mexico also had agreement above 50% that global warming is human caused.
Fragmented consensus. Disturbingly, the only states where more than 50% of respondents knew about the scientific consensus on climate change were Hawaii, Washington DC, and Massachusetts. Even states like California, where 70% think global warming is happening and 55% think it is from human activities, only 49% correctly identified a scientific consensus on the issue.
images via flickr Norbert Reimer and Yale Project on Climate Change Communications
