INFOGRAPHIC: The Politics of Climate Change

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The Great Partisan Divide

What are the politics of global warming? Here are on-record summations of the viewpoints of current Republican presidential hopefuls:

“There is no such thing as global warming…” —Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum in an interview with Glenn Beck last year.

“You know, the greatest hoax I think that has been around in many, many years if not hundreds of years has been this hoax on the environment and global warming…” —Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul in a 2009 interview.

“I believe we don’t know…” —Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, responding to whether global warming is man-made.

Such opinions have sparked debate, but do such party beliefs reflect American public viewpoints? Yes, according to the Pew Survey, which indicates an increasing a partisan divide on global warming: 77 percent of Democrats cited solid evidence of global warming, versus only 43 percent of Republicans. Independents are somewhere in between with 63 percent who trust that there is solid evidence. Party beliefs behind the warming trend vary. Human activity is to blame, according to 51 percent of Democrats, 40 percent of Independents and just 19 percent of Republicans.

Despite the low percentage among Republicans, the survey also points notes that since 2009, there has been a sharp increase in both moderate and liberal Republicans and Independents who say there is solid evidence of global warming versus conservative Republicans, whose viewpoints indicate only a minor increase in the same belief.

The biggest findings are reflected in the party gap, Pew highlights: “The gap between conservative Republicans and the party’s moderates and liberals has increased from nine percentage points in 2009 to 32 points in the new survey.”

The other viewpoint taken into account was Tea Party Republicans versus non-Tea Party Republicans. “Among all Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who agree with the Tea Party, 30 percent say there is solid evidence of global warming and 11 percent say it is mostly caused by human activity,” according to the survey findings. “A majority (56 percent) of Republicans and GOP leaners who do not agree with the Tea Party see solid evidence of global warming, and 28 percent say it is mostly caused by human activity.”