Is Global Climate Change Happening Or Not? White Evangelical Christians Split on the Issue

Framing Science is highlighting a graphic that represents the results of a Pew Forum survey on how global climate change is perceived in the US by various Christian groups and the entire US population. Post author Matthew Nesbit spins it as there not being much of a difference between evangelicals and the population as a whole when it comes to whether global warming is due to human activity, natural cycles, or not happening. But it really seems that there is a difference:Political Affiliation More Important Than Religious AffiliationNesbit points out that in comparison to the split between college educated Democrats and college educated Republicans (where the difference is 50% on the same question), there is common concern about global climate change among religious groups. He also points out that the gap between religiously unaffiliated and White evangelical Protestants is less than 20%.

When I first read that I thought, "That's really interesting and encouraging." I had heard similar stats thrown around that indicated Evangelicals were in general less skeptical of global warming than is commonly perceived.

But what if you look at this from another perspective? The percentage of people who say that there is no solid evidence that Earth is warming. The picture is quite different.

More White Evangelicals Say No Warming Happening Than Any Other GroupFrom this angle, slightly less than one-third of White evangelical Protestants (31%) say that global climate change is not happening. That's roughly equal to those that believe it is happening, and due to human activity.

From a practical perspective, from one which is trying to motivate people that societal and technological change is needed to combat climate change you might as well throw in those people that believe warming is happening due to natural fluctuations with those that say it is not happening. So that brings the total for Evangelicals to 48%.

That compares to 39% for the population at large, where only 21% of people say that there is no evidence of warming.

Black Protestants Split on Human Causes or Natural CyclesOf course, there are many ways to read these survey results. As a commenter in the original post notices, 75% of Black Protestants believe that global warming is happening. But why it is happening is roughly evenly split between human activity and natural cycles. At 36% ascribing to natural cycles, that's higher than any other group by 16%.

via: Framing ScienceGlobal Climate ChangeThe 4 Stages of Global Warming DenialWorst-Case IPPC Climate Change Trajectories Are Being Realized: Copenhagen Climate Congress Concludes
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