Trust us, trust me, trust the data, trust the research, can be trusted. These are phrases we hear all too often, but who do we really trust? When it comes to global warming and climate change, as the EcoRight where do we go for trustworthy facts & figures? Who do you listen to?
Back in April, our friends at George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication, along with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication released a report titled, Politics & Global Warming.
The report features the table below: a list of global warming sources ranked in order of trust and further divided by political leaning.
We here at republicEn were curious about how much our EcoRight online community reflects the findings represented in the table. Now let me be clear, our polls are meant to be simple, easy, and brief – which means we couldn’t reproduce the original questionnaire and, at the same time, meet poll participants’ expectations (30 seconds, anyone?). Instead, we modified our questions but kept the list of global warming sources the same.
Overall, we found that we all hold climate scientists in high esteem regardless of political standing! Also, our EcoRight community wanted more or different choices than the list of sources provided by the Politics & Global Warming report. This is evident by the high percentage of pollees who chose “Other.” You can view the long list of “Others” at the bottom of the page. Many of our members were keen to point out in the poll’s free-form comments the importance of exposure to various sources from diverse climate-related spectrums.
Here are the details:
*Other answers supplied by poll participants can be viewed by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
*Other answers supplied by poll participants can be viewed by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
Center-leaning poll findings: Trust – 58% Climate scientists, 12% **Other, 10% NASA, 10% NPR (National Public Radio), 5% Environmental organizations, 2% Leaders in your religious faith, 1% Television weather reporters, 1% National network news, 1% U.S. military leaders, 1% EPA.
Left-leaning poll findings: Trust – 65% Climate scientists, 9% NPR (National Public Radio), 5% NASA , 5% ***Other, 5% Environmental organizations, 5% EPA, 2% President Biden, 2% American Medical Association.
Center-leaning poll findings: Distrust – 48% Fox News Channel, 33% Oil, gas, and coal companies, 4% Your Congressperson, 3% President Biden, 3% ††Other, 2% Leaders in your religious faith, 2% EPA, 2% MSNBC, 2% National network news, 1% NPR (National Public Radio), 1% Your local newspaper, 1% Television weather reporters.
Left-leaning poll findings: Distrust – 67% Fox News Channel, 27% Oil, gas, and coal companies, 9% NPR (National Public Radio), 2% Your local newspaper, 2% Your Congressperson, 2% President Biden.
Poll answers represent republicEn members across 40 states, plus the District of Columbia, U.S. Virgin Islands, Ontario, Canada, and Mato Grosso Do Sul, Brazil. Florida submitted the most responses with Texas close behind. The political leaning of poll takers: 42% lean right, 37% claim center, 19% lean left, and 2% are unsure or prefer not to say.
Here are some shared thoughts and opinions from our members:
- “I trust my own experience with climate change. I am a rancher, working out in the weather everyday for about 40 years. Depending on weather, rain, water. As a rancher, one of the most important things we do is to take care of our grasses and soils and our water sources.” – Sally S. in Texas
- “A combination of sources, historic global warming and cooling cycles, scientific considerations, actual definitions of terms in comparison with hysteria useage. Never one source alone. ” – Douglas S. in Virginia
- “I started to put down climate scientists, but this subject has been so politicized that I would have to know the climate scientist, their background or education and probably their political leanings.” – Joseph B. in South Carolina
- “I don’t trust any ONE source for information. Everyone has an agenda that they are trying to shove down our throats. We watch multiple news channels, and read multiple sources. ” – Peggy R. in Washington
- “I try to find a right-leaning source, then a left-leaning source, and compare those sources to academic journals. ” – Aaron Y. in Tennessee
- “In this time, in this country, one must be highly skeptical, thoughtful, and critical, and do one’s homework. ” – John M. in Texas
*Other sources trusted by Right-leaning poll participants included: Scientific American magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Inside Climate News, 1440 newsletter, wattsupwiththat.com, IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), American Meteorological Society, books such as How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going by Vaclav Smil, climatologist Dr. Roy Spencer, physicist Steven Koonin, God, energy theorist & philosopher Alex Epstein, research by Copenhagen Consensus thinktank leader Bjorn Lomborg, and Seattle meteorologist Cliff Mass.
**Other sources trusted by Center-leaning poll participants included: Reuters, PBS (Public Broadcasting Station), 1440 newsletter, the Rhodium Group, OAN (One America News Network), Newsmax, IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), National Climate Assessment (U.S.), and the U.S. Climate Change Science Program reports.
***Other sources trusted by Left-leaning poll participants included: BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), MIT & Harvard, theconversation.com, National Geographic magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the Epoch Times, Newsmax, and (OAN) One America News Network.
††Other sources distrusted by Center-leaning poll participants included: Koch Network – the Heartland Institute, Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), State Policy Network (SPN), etc., the Epoch Times, the Western Journal, One America News Network, New America, and Red State.