Record Number of Americans See Climate Change As a Current Threat (axios.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: More Americans are very worried about global warming and say the issue is personally important to them than ever before, according to a new poll released Tuesday. The polling may indicate that extreme weather events -- coupled with a series of grim scientific findings -- over the past year are starting to change peoples' minds about climate change, which could have significant implications for any significant climate legislation passing Congress. The key finding from the new survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication is that Americans increasingly view global warming as a present-day threat to them, rather than an issue that will affect future generations. Nearly half of Americans (46%) said they personally experienced the effects of global warming -- a 15-point spike since March 2015.

Comments

Re:Hmm...I just can't think of an example...

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Why is it then predominantly only the left that pushes the cataclysmic effects of climate change, while those on the right tend not to see it as a dire threat (if they acknowledge it exists)?

It's a matter of temperament with each group. At the risk of over-generalizing, leftists support progress, reform, internationalism, whereas rightists support order, tradition, and nationalism. More here.

Is it the those on the left are just so wise, and those on the right are dumb?

No and no. There are lots of dumb leftists and smart rightists. As I said, it's more an issue of temperament than intelligence.

Or is it that the left has been attaching climate change to all of their favorite other ideas, making it even less of an attractive/plausible issue to those on the right?

The left and the right have been known to agree on many things. Generally they just don't seem to do so on this one. I don't think the right is less inclined to deal with climate change because the left has the opposite view. Rather, they see the effort to deal with climate change as disruptive of a status quo they are comfortable with.