Funk
People’s views about energy are closely intertwined with their views about climate, according to Cary Funk, associate director of research on science and society at the Pew Research Center.
“You really can’t separate the two,” Funk said, addressing delegates to the Global Energy Forum 2017 held recently in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
“Over the long term, we really are living in a time of heightened concern about climate change,” Funk continued, adding that the degree of concern “varies widely across the globe.”
According to data derived from the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Survey conducted in 40 countries, 45 percent of North Americans said that climate change was a very serious problem.
“In Canada, that was just a little bit higher, at 51 percent,” Funk said, “and in Mexico, a little bit higher yet, at two-thirds, or 66 percent.”
Conducted in 2015, the survey found that Latin Americans and Sub-Saharan Africans were more troubled by climate change than people in other regions; the U.S. stood out, along with China, as having relatively low concerns about climate change.
A more recent Pew study, conducted in mid-2016, revealed that 74 percent of Americans living in the United States surveyed said they care a great deal, or some, about the issue of global climate change, with 26 percent of Americans saying they don’t care too much, or not at all.
The study further indicated that about half of U.S. Americans believe power plant restrictions and international agreement can make a big difference in climate change. About one-third of those people, or 38 percent, believe people’s efforts to reduce their personal carbon footprints impacts climate change.
“About 14 percent of homeowners have said that they have already installed home solar panels, and many more—I think about half in the west—say they have given it serious thought,” Funk said. “When we ask, ‘What are your reasons for that?’ of course, the top reason is to save money on utility bills.”
Other actions cited in the survey as having an impact on climate change included imposing restrictions on power plant emissions, international agreement to limit emissions, tougher fuel efficiency standards, corporate tax incentives, more people driving a hybrid car.
The study’s data indicated a substantial difference in attitudes between the U.S.’s two major political parties. Ninety-four percent of liberal Democrats indicated they care a great deal, or some, versus six percent saying they don’t care too much, or at all. Conversely, only 46 percent of conservative Republicans indicated they care a great deal, or some, about the issue, with 53 percent saying they don’t care too much, or at all.
Reflecting conservative sentiment, one of President Donald J. Trump’s earliest executive decisions was to bar the Environmental Protection Agency and its staff from discussing or disseminating any climate-related news to outsiders; he also instructed the EPA to take down the climate change page from its website, according to Reuters. Additionally, during the presidential election campaign, President Trump vowed to “cancel” 2015’s Paris Agreement, negotiated by United Nations member countries to limit global warming to maximum 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit).
Regardless of political party affiliation, 75 percent of Americans surveyed said they are particularly concerned about the environment, with one in five saying they try to act on that concern all of the time, with a mere four percent reporting they make no effort to live in ways that help protect the environment.
“The main theme of where we are right now is uncertainty,” Funk concluded. “Our mission is to track trends going on in the United States and around the world, and we’ve got our eye on how things are about to shift. It’s going to take a little while for the public to catch up—really, for all of us—to see how things play out in the policy arena. And then it will take a little while for that to register in public opinion.”
