Skeptics and Politics

Over the past few years the public has become more and more skeptical of the use of fossil fuels by humans as a cause of global warming. The cause of this change is a highly effective lobbying campaign and enormous amounts of money spent on conservative Congressional candidates, plus conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, and Citizens United, funded in part by the notorious Koch Brothers, Tea Party supporters, one of the largest companies in the country, and owners of many oil wells. The graph clearly shows that this campaign to discredit climate science has been very effective.

Sadly, climate scientists haven't the money or the organization to counter this campaign. The truth is that the climate science is true and our consumption of fossil fuels and emission of Carbon Dioxide are a significant cause of climate change, namely global warming.

This chart from a Gallup Poll illustrates how politics clouds the judgement and influences the beliefs of the public at large. The downward trend starting in mid 2010 among the Independents and Democrats is encouraging but the upward trend of Republicans is disheartening.