Canadians more supportive of climate action; western U.S. more reluctant (02/24/2011) Canadians are more likely than Americans to believe in climate change and support spending money on renewable sources and emission caps. At the same time, a majority of registered voters in five Western states in the United States say they don't think global warming is a serious enough problem to take action now. Majorities of the same U.S. voters, though, support U.S. EPA regulation of carbon dioxide. The snapshot of voter attitudes on both sides of the Canadian-U.S. border comes from two separate polls this week examining belief in man- made climate change and the level of support for paying monthly figures to boost renewable power. The first survey from three academic institutions finds that Canadians are 22 percentage points more likely than Americans to believe there is solid evidence of global warming and 19 percentage points more likely to back cap and trade as concept. Fifty-eight percent of Canadians said they would back an emissions cap if it cost them $50 month, compared to 18 percent of Americans. Part of the reason for the difference is that Canadians historically give more credence generally to government to solve problems, said Christopher Borick of Muhlenberg College, one of the co-authors. The poll found, for example, that 65 percent of Canadians said the Canadian federal government has "a great deal of responsibility" in addressing global warming, compared to 43 percent of Americans. Seeing more effects of climate change "Canadians also say they are seeing the effects of global warming firsthand more than Americans," Borick said. That observation of unusually warm and severe weather has boosted acceptance of climate change as a phenomenon in Canada in a place that was already more accepting of scientists, he said. Canada also wasn't hit with as severe an economic downturn as the United States in recent years, providing one explanation for high support of paying for renewable power, he said. Sixty percent of Canadians say they would pay $1 to $250 monthly to pay for increased renewable production, compared to 50 percent of Americans, the poll said. The second assessment of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming voters, from two polling firms, one Republican, the other Democratic, found a majority of voters expressed skepticism about climate change. Their seemingly contradictory majority support for EPA restrictions on greenhouse gases likely comes from concerns about air quality in general and a belief that carbon controls would contain "auxiliary benefits," said the researchers from Public Opinion Strategies and Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates. "Indeed, air pollution is a prominent environmental concern among Westerners, just edging out water pollution as the most commonly volunteered environmental problem," the report says. Overall, Western voters indicate "more positive impressions of solar and wind power as energy sources than they do for coal or oil," according to the research. Majorities in four of the five states say they would be willing to pay $10 a month or more to increase renewable energy. The one exception is Wyoming, which is one of the biggest coal- producing states in the country. Less than half, or 46 percent, of voters there say they would pay $10 a month or more to augment renewable power. The poll on Western states was conducted among 2,200 voters as part of Colorado College's "State of the Rockies" Project. The Canadian-U.S. poll was conducted via random phone dialing by researchers at Muhlenberg College, the University of Montreal and the University of Michigan. |
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