Workshop on Sociological Perspectives on Global Climate Change

News of Global Warming Is Generally Exaggerated

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1997 Nov 6-92001 Mar 5-72002 Mar 4-72003 Mar 3-5

2004 Mar 8-

11

2005 Mar 7-

10

2006 Mar 13-

16

2007 Mar 11-

14

2008 Mar 6-9

%

Republican Independent Democratic

Clearly Republicans and Democrats are reacting to news of global warming, including coverage of IPCC
reports, very differently than are Democrats, and this helps account for their divergent views on whether global
warming is already occurring. Results such as these emphasize the importance of addressing the issues noted
above, for they suggest that a skeptical view of climate change has been transmitted to a sizable portion of the
American public and it is unlikely to disappear as a result of ever-more-conclusive reports of global warming
issued by the IPCC—boding poorly for the emergence of supportive public opinion that can facilitate policy-
making.

Historically Republicans have been somewhat less likely be concerned about environmental problems
and to support environmental protection policies than their Democratic counterparts (Dunlap et al. 2001), but in
the 1990s the gap began to widen. The divergence in views of global warming have become particularly sizable,
suggesting that Republicans have been influenced by party leaders, conservative pundits and climate skeptics on
this issue.

It seems likely that climate skepticism has become part of Republican and conservative orthodoxy, and
thus may be hard to overcome. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see if Republican Presidential candidate