Americans experience a false social reality by underestimating popular climate policy support by nearly half - Nature Communications
www.nature.com
A new study finds that Americans underestimate how many are concerned about climate change as well as support for major climate policies by nearly half, with climate policy supporters significantly outnumbering non-supporters.

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.

  • hypelightfly@kbin.social
    12·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • neanderthal@lemmy.worldOP
      7·
      10 months ago

      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?

      • hypelightfly@kbin.social
        4·
        10 months ago

        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).

        • neanderthal@lemmy.worldOP
          21·
          10 months ago

          Do you support climate policies such as ending car dependency, carbon taxes and, getting off of fossil fuels?

          So you are saying the nature article is wrong because of voter turnout?

          In a way, you are proving the articles point. Belief leads to action. GOP voters have a higher turnout because they think their vote matters. I think the left, particularly in red areas probably don’t turn out to vote because they don’t think it matters.

          • Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            2·
            10 months ago

            Well I’m in a red area and my vote didn’t matter for a decade until re-districting took place and made my district competitive again.

          • hypelightfly@kbin.social
            1·
            10 months ago

            The article was saying a lot of GOP voters also support climate policy. I disagree for the reasons above.

            They support the idea of those policies but don’t actually vote for them.

    • Strayce@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      4·
      10 months ago

      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.