Poll: Tea Party more skeptical on climate than Republicans overall

A bit more on the new Pew climate poll: It finds that Republicans who identify with the Tea Party movement are more skeptical about global warming than other GOP-ers.

“Republicans who agree with the Tea Party movement are much more likely than other Republicans to say that there is no solid evidence that the earth’s temperature has been rising,” Pew finds in the poll conducted this month.

“Among Republican registered voters who agree with the Tea Party, fully 70% do not think there is solid evidence that the average temperature on earth is warming. By comparison, only 38% of Republican voters who disagree with the Tea Party or who have never heard of the movement express this view. Half (50%) of Tea Party Republican voters also say global warming is not a problem at all; 24% say it is not too serious, and just 8% think it is a problem that requires immediate government action,” Pew adds in a summary of the findings.

Al Gore this week attacked global warming skepticism in the Tea Party movement, and linked it to fossil fuel industry-backed groups that support the movement.