U.S. voters who don’t trust universities are also more likely to believe that human activity doesn’t cause climate change, a new collaborative study from researchers at the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) revealed in PLOS Climate.
Based on a survey of thousands of U.S. voters, co-authors Cambridge Zero Fellow and Assistant Professor Ramit Debnath, Professor R. Michael Alvarez and Mr. Danny Ebanks from Caltech, found that Americans who expressed negative and distrustful opinions about universities and academics were also the most likely to believe climate change is not caused by humans and is not a problem for the United States.
Despite increasing catastrophic weather events such as wildfires, flooding and news reports that hurricanes like Idalia have become wetter, windier and more intense because of rising global temperatures, the study revealed that almost half of U.S. voters (45%) believe climate change isn’t a problem at all, and 41% of voters believe that climate change is a natural phenomenon not caused by humans.
Professor Debnath said, “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.”
Among all the variables studied, such as age, gender, race, education and region, the most statistically significant factor in driving climate denialism was trust in institutions, the authors said. Young registered voters were most likely to trust institutions.
2023-09-09 06:00:04
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