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Poll: Half of Republicans Favor Carbon Limits As Scientists Warn Of “Uninhabitable” Planet

220px-AlfedPalmersmokestacksgopREPUBLICANSA new poll shows broad support for carbon limits, including half of all Republicans. The poll comes out as scientists warn (as reported in the NY Times) that time is running out on climate change and, without decisive action, the world could eventually become uninhabitable for humans. Today, the Pope added his voice to the overwhelming weight of world scientists that time is running out. Likewise, island nations are now demanding action and calling on the world to witness the loss of their very existence to the rising seas.

In the meeting in Lima, scientists are presenting new data showing that the world’s climate is already changing and that we cannot avoid high costs associated with greenhouse gases but that we can still avoid planetary disaster if we commit to new limits without further delay.

I have long been an advocate of carbon limits to address climate change. While I disagree with some of his methods, I have great respect for President Obama in his making climate change a priority of his Administration.

In Lima, reports indicate that there may be no way to prevent the planet’s temperature from rising and a breach of the 3.6 degree threshold appears inevitable. However, they paint a dire picture that we must soon choose between an unpleasant world and an uninhabitable one.

While the GOP is often portrayed as anti-environmental, the Republican base contains many who believe not only in stronger environmental laws but carbon limits to address climate change. In the latest poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and Yale University, six out of ten Americans support regulation of carbon dioxide pollution. More importantly, this figure includes one out of every two Republicans. There is a sharp disconnect between such views and the actions of both parties in Congress in resisting limits and other changes designed to reduce greenhouse gases. Certainly, the GOP is not nearly as monolithic as commentary would often suggest on the issue of environmental protection.

Source: FOX

77 thoughts on “Poll: Half of Republicans Favor Carbon Limits As Scientists Warn Of “Uninhabitable” Planet”

  1. The Chicken Little people, who have a lotta money invested in “alternative energy” are pooping their pants. There’s a LOT more oil available than ever believed. This is about the greed of people who have used govt. to push their greedy agenda cloaked in “saving the planet.” I just returned from Mexico. The air pollution there is horrible. They will not change, nor will most of the world. Change is being shoved down the throats of US and European citizens in the name of righteousness. In the words of Malcolm X, speaking about white politicians, “You been hoodwinked, bamboozled, you been lied to.”

  2. The people who want to do something about climate change and want to preserve the environment are the same people who were dropping acid, smoking dope and living on communes in the ’60s, that is dirty stinking hippies.

    It is the duty of all decent god fearing right winger troglodytes to oppose everything that dirty stinking hippies support and to support everything that dirty stinking hippies oppose even if the dirty stinking hippies happen to be right, especially if the dirty stinking hippies happen to be right.

    When in the future a decent god fearing right winger is standing in Florida in water up to the neck he should blame the dirty stinking hippies for supporting doing something about climate change thereby forcing him to more effectively oppose doing something about it. If only you dirty stinking hippies had supported use of the most carbon intensive fossil fuels then we the righteous majority could have done something effective about climate change. Global warming therefore is your fault.

    For an example of a right wing hippy puncher look at Australia’s prime minister, Tony Abott.

    1. Carlyle Moulton-I take it you are a Dirty Stinking Hippy or whatever. It’s important to classify people this way so we can evolve as a species.

  4. Every time the bloggers are faced with a social, climate, or political problem, many or you folks point fingers at everyone but yourselves.
    You hate big oil, but drive your cars everyday or use transportation that used oil fuel. 99% of every product we use requires oil in the product or in the production of the product, but you blame Koch brothers–not the other Democratic oil magnates, just Koch brothers.
    You worry about climate change, but most do little to cut back, recycle everything,and not use plastic in any form (which also uses oil).
    Some of you point fingers at wealthy people, bankers, politicians, and others who fly in their big jets, but you fly everywhere. If your not flying your driving.
    We have done very little in this country to pass stringent recycling laws.
    If the federal government told everyone that they would be fined (taxed) for going over a certain speed limit or putting X amount of miles on their cars odometer, the public would yell and call the government a nanny state or communism.
    I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to say it. Climate improvement begins with each individuals social responsibility.

  5. Max -1, talking climate change and science to the deniers is like telling a creationist that evolution is real. Regardless of the science, they will not believe you. They would rather die knowing they believed in their own opinion, than in the science. Or try to tell a republican that the Benghzi findings exonerate Clinton/Obama and you will receive a blank stare and then a scream that government findings are lies! But yet these same people believe in medical science, agricultural science, chemical science, engineering science, nuclear science, physics, mathematics, zoological science, botanical science, etc., but mention climate science and it’s bad science, it’s One World Order manipulation, it’s a method of controlling the free will of Americans!, it’s anything but science. So it should be no surprise that America is falling further behind in science:

    “In science, 22 education systems scored above the U.S. average, up from 18 in 2009.”

    http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/03/248329823/u-s-high-school-students-slide-in-math-reading-science

    There is certainly no denying that Americans are less able to understand science….

  6. on 1, December 12, 2014 at 6:45 pmMax-1
    Haz
    If you’re going to link to people that are funded by the Koch brothers or are invited guests of the Koch brothers, why shouldn’t I point out their roll in manipulating facts to skew opinions of average Americans thus making them less smart?
    ********************************

    Max, because it’s an inconvenient truth, lol.

  8. Haz
    If you’re going to link to people that are funded by the Koch brothers or are invited guests of the Koch brothers, why shouldn’t I point out their roll in manipulating facts to skew opinions of average Americans thus making them less smart?

  10. Say Haz,
    I don’t support carbon fuels. Period.

    So, nice try with the obligatory Warren Buffet mention. BTW

  11. Well there we go. The obligatory Koch Brothers mention.

    Hey, did you know that liberal mega-funder Tom Steyer, is a strong opponent of fossil fuels, and especially of coal? Well he is! At least in public.

    And he is also founder of Farallon Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and investment company. And Farallon is a HUGE player in coal investments, not in America, but overseas where there isn’t as much transparency, and investment positions can be concealed.

    Let’s quote Forbes here: “With a modicum of effort one discovers that since 2003 Farallon has played the pivotal role in financing the tremendous restructuring and growth in thermal coal production in the region. All of this took place under Mr. Steyer’s tenure as founder and senior partner of Farallon.”

    Here is a link to the entire article. It is quite interesting.

    So yeah, talk about GOP deniers and such, but look first to the left to find some real denial. And a lot of hypocrisy.

    Maybe next time we talk, we can discuss lefty Warren Buffet’s massive investments in carbon based energy.

  13. Haz
    Are you aware that Dr. Easterbrook was a guest speaker at the Heartland Institute? An institute funded by the Koch brothers… He’s maintained his opinion about global cooling… even though the records disprove his theories.

  14. Mr. Turley,
    I think the reason half of the GOP believe the deniers is because it falls back to a couple of idioms… the first being: A man is only capable of understanding what he is paid to not understand (aka Koch funded campaigns) and the other idiom: A sucker is born every minute.

    Their unfortunate pairing, like silk gloves only OJ Simpson could wear, will ultimately be our disgrace as a Nation should we fail to uphold our obligation to the world for their safety against our pollution.

  16. Well. I guess we could believe the Socialist protesters, then.

    Or maybe this guy knows a bit more about climate change (or lack thereof). Dr. Don Easterbrook. He uses data and stuff. He holds a PhD and has studied global warming for five decades. He is not paid by any organization or group. He is an environmentalist.

    His sworn testimony shown in this video is a bit lengthy, so I’ll summarize: C02 cannot be causing global warming because it is a trace gas and there is so little of it.

    http://youtu.be/4LkMweOVOOI

    I have posted a link to Dr. Easterbrook’s testimony. I can’t embed teh video because the emb function was disabled on the video.

  19. The year closes… becoming the 14th HOTTEST year on record.
    It’s 2015 and those 14 years all happened during our lifetimes this Century.
    That’s correct, this Century is only 15 years old.

    But the world is flat, the globe (because it’s flat) isn’t warming, and plateau flat (because the earth is flat).

  20. Darren
    I think people are arguing that 1+1 does NOT = 2
    Regardless of empirical evidence to the contrary.

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