Poll finds widespread Tea Party climate doubts

A new poll shows that 50 percent of self-identified Tea Party members don’t believe in global warming, and less than one-fifth believe that human activities are causing the planet to heat up.

The Public Religion Research Institute poll is the latest to show deep political divides on global warming, an issue that’s also animating campaign trail clashes between GOP White House hopefuls Rick Perry, governor of Texas, and Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah.

“Eighty-one percent of Democrats and 7-in-10 independents believe the earth is getting warmer, compared to less than half (49%) of Republicans and only about 4-in-10 (41%) Americans who identify as members of the Tea Party,” states a summary of the poll released Thursday.

The survey shows that, among people who believe the planet is warming, 64 percent believe climate change is caused by human activities such as burning fossil fuels, while 32 percent chalk it up to natural environmental patterns.

The political divide on the question of causes is sharp.

“Less than 1-in-5 Republicans (18%) and Tea Party members (18%) believe that climate change is caused by human activity, compared to 60% of Democrats,” the research group said.

The findings show differences among religious denominations too.

“White evangelicals are significantly less likely to believe that the earth is getting warmer and that changes are caused by human activity (31%) than white mainline Protestants (43%), Catholics (50%), or the unaffiliated (52%),” it notes.

The poll also probes views about evolution. A summary of the findings can be found here.

The poll suggest that GOP White House candidates who doubt climate science — including Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) — face a bumpy transition from the primaries to the general election on the issue if nominated.

“While most Americans say the issues of evolution and climate change do not strongly influence their support of candidates, these issues are symbolically important for two groups that play an outsize role in Republican primary politics: white evangelical Protestants and members of the Tea Party,” Robert P. Jones, the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, said in a statement.

“The challenge for Republican candidates is to talk about these issues now in a way that will not hurt them later in the general election,” he said.

Fifty-four percent of the people surveyed say that if a candidate rejects the notion of human-induced climate change, this would not affect their chances of voting for the candidate.

But among those who are inclined to vote based on climate views, 36percent are less likely to vote for a candidate that doesn’t believe climate change is caused by humans, while 9 percent would be more likely to back that candidate.

That trend is reversed among Tea Party members, however. The poll finds:

"Members of the Tea Party are much more likely than any other group to say that they would be more likely (33%) than less likely (24%) to support a candidate who does not believe in climate change. Only 16% of Republicans, 9% of independents, and 5% of Democrats say they would be more likely."

The telephone survey of 1,013 adults was conducted Sept. 14 through Sept. 18 and has a margin of error of 3 percent.

The overwhelming view among scientists and major scientific organizations is that the planet is getting warmer and that greenhouse emissions from burning fossil fuels is a key reason why.

In 2009, 18 scientific groups — including the American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science — issued a joint statement on the matter. They said that greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are the “primary driver” of climate change.