Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Climate Change Opinions Follow Where It Effects People

There is a website that studies climate change opinions that is fascinating.  They break the opinions down by state, congressional district or county.  The county data is the most informative to me.  (site)
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It seems to me that the more impacted you are by climate change, the more you believe it is real (and, conversely, the more important coal is to your community the less you believe it is real).
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Look at this map of public opinion on "Estimated % of Adults Who Think Climate Change will harm people in the US".
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Then compare that to "Global Warming is Mostly Caused by Human Activities".  People that are effected by it now, believe human activity is the key factor.  People who live where "100-Year" Droughts, Wildfires, Hurricanes, and Flooding" is happening regularly, not ever 100 years.
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It is a cool set of data.
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And most people think Global Warming is happening (see below).  The change in opinion of source depends on if you think is will (or has) harmed people.
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