Americans generally support climate policy, but they think others generally don't

www.nature.com

Americans experience a false social reality by underestimating popular climate policy support by nearly half - Nature Communications

My fellow Americans. Get off your asses and vote. In every election. Even in red areas. If we all get off our asses, we will generally win. Run for local office if you are able. Contact local officials and get them to take measures.

23 comments

An overwhelming share of the french population supports action against climate change and say the issue is important to them
63% of french people think the government should subsidize gasoline to lower prices at the pump
- The usual all against climate change, as long as I do not have to pay for it or change my lifestyle in the slightest.
- I've never been to France. How car dependent is it? Do people need or choose to drive? For those that need, why not ask to subsidize electric vehicles, the lesser evil?
  
  It depends where you live. Southern france is more car dependent, places rural places as well ; In general, it's not car dependent
  Lots of people chose to live 30 minutes away from their work by car and think it's normal do to so
I think this studies definition of support is flawed. Saying you support something without context on a poll doesn't translate to actual support in actions or voting.
If you don't vote, you don't support climate policy.
If you vote for politicians (especially in primaries) that oppose climate policy, you don't support climate policy.
- as well as the percent of Americans who supported each of the following climate policies: a carbon tax, a 100-percent renewable energy mandate for electricity, siting renewables on public lands, and a Green New Deal (GND). Each policy was shown given the same brief description as used in polling by the YPCCC
  They did provide context. The above text was from the methods section. Maybe I am missing something?
  
  Some people who say they support those policies vote for people who don't support those policies, others don't vote at all. I'm saying they don't actually support the policies based on their votes (or not voting).
- I get what you're saying, but I feel like you're kinda missing the point. The false social reality is actually a barrier to action. Obviously there's exceptions, especially in this community, but generally speaking, people are less likely to take actions they believe are unpopular or "against the norm". Social contract and all. And this goes double for politicians; they're less likely to propose climate policies if they believe (albeit mistakenly) that they'll be unpopular.
  You can also bet that the plastic and fossil fuels industries know this and absolutely take advantage of it.
Get off your asses and vote
the Preaident we voted in has a mixed set of policies on climate change.
However: the Inflation Reduction Act also lends a potentially unlimited amount of Subsidizing funding for renewablw energy projects. Every single time there is local development? Insist that they take advantage of this funding.
I think Biden has put the ball in our court, but local advocacy is actually now the best way to get renewablea built.
- Biden has definitely been a mixed bag on climate, but here's a recent win. The admin is aware of pressure from the public on environment, they know they need us to keep winning.
  
  Omg hey! This is really good news! Thanks.
There are a lot of good state and local candidates running
- Thank you.
Americans support climate policy? I'm in the deep south, and I literally know zero people who even believe in climate change. They sure as hell don't support climate policy, and most of them are loud and proud about both of these things.
- Even in the deep south the number is much more than zero. It's more that people aren't talking about it
- As silence said, many Republican voters are actually with liberals on a lot of positions but simply do not speak up, and even lie on certain surveys, because they too, like us, are afraid of the fascists who live near them.
americans are just in another realm
I would like all public opinion data to be reported in this format.
- Even if you can't vote, you can still email/call your representatives, go to local government meetings, explain the issues to people you know and ask them to vote, volunteer, etc.
  I'm not saying you have to, but any of those is a helpful contribution.

23 comments