Solar energy and climate change deniers

Global warming is a constantly present danger for the earth and its inhabitants. The latest projections from climate scientists show that their dire initial predictions were not nearly severe enough. The rate of melting ice in the Arctic is much worse now than the climate experts predicted. There are more indications of violent weather events related to global warming and weather patterns are becoming more destructive than ever before. Today, even climate change deniers want more renewable energy. A report released by the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy found that a majority of Americans, including many Trump voters least likely to accept climate change, believe in prioritizing alternative energy over oil drilling. Carsey school researchers surveyed 707 adults from every state before and after the election. They found that 3/4 of all respondents, regardless of political affiliation, said that renewable energy should be a bigger national priority than oil drilling. Analyzed according to party, 93 percent of Clinton voters and 84 percent of nonvoters supported renewable sources of power. Trump voters were the only group that preferred expanding oil drilling, but by a slim margin—48 percent preferred renewable energy. But the possibility of a promising trend has come forth before the election: Only 39 percent of Trump supporters said the same.

Polls show solar power growing more popular...even with Trump voters

The findings coincide with the results of other recent polls. A Pew Survey in October, for instance, also found strong bipartisan support for green energy, leading Pew researchers to conclude that, while climate science is sometimes highly politicized, climate skepticism doesn’t transfer to all related issues: While there are very strong ideological differences over increasing fossil fuel and nuclear energy sources, majorities of all political organizations support more solar and wind energy. These patterns are most consistent with past findings that climate change and fossil fuel energy issues are effectively linked with party and ideology. However, political divisions have a much more moderate relationship with public attitudes on other science-related topics. Based on survey results, representing renewable energy as a solution to climate change is unlikely to get much support from this base. Unfortunately, Trump supporters aren’t moving much on the issue of climate change. Only 1/4 of Trump supporters surveyed agree that man-made climate change is happening now. That’s in stark contrast to the 90 percent of Clinton supporters, 76 percent of nonvoters and 68 percent of third-party voters who have accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.

Climate change deniers in the Trump administration

Trump and his allies, particularly Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, have run on a campaign of “soft denial” of climate change. It’s not just that they’re ignoring the scientific results, they’re doing so insidiously: moving from the false claim of “climate change isn’t happening” to the intellectually dishonest judgment that scientists are still not in agreement. But as the effects of global warming become ever more obvious, it’s encouraging that we may see some support for green energy initiatives, even among skeptics. But for some conservatives, there’s a strong instinct to fight every initiative initiated by a progressive person. Mr. Trump has not hidden his intentions to repeal virtually every initiative of Mr. Obama. This seems to particularly true on any environmental issue.

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