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Title: Most Americans see combating climate change as a moral duty
Source:
Reuters
URL Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/ ... idUKKBN0LV0CV20150227?irpc=932
Published: Feb 27, 2015
Author: Bruce Wallace
Post Date: 2015-02-27 17:18:40 by Willie Green
Keywords: None
Views: 1761
Comments: 11
(Reuters) - A significant majority of Americans say combating climate change is a moral issue that obligates them – and world leaders - to reduce carbon emissions, a Reuters/IPSOS poll has found. The poll of 2,827 Americans was conducted in February to measure the impact of moral language, including interventions by Pope Francis, on the climate change debate. In recent months, the pope has warned about the moral consequences of failing to act on rising global temperatures, which are expected to disproportionately affect the lives of the world’s poor. The result of the poll suggests that appeals based on ethics could be key to shifting the debate over climate change in the United States, where those demanding action to reduce carbon emissions and those who resist it are often at loggerheads. Two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) said that world leaders are morally obligated to take action to reduce CO2 emissions. And 72 percent said they were “personally morally obligated” to do what they can in their daily lives to reduce emissions. “When climate change is viewed through a moral lens it has broader appeal,” said Eric Sapp, executive director of the American Values Network, a grassroots organization that mobilizes faith-based communities on politics and policy issues. “The climate debate can be very intellectual at times, all about economic systems and science we don’t understand. This makes it about us, our neighbors and about doing the right thing.” Some observers believe the pope’s message can resonate beyond his own church. “The moral imperative is the way to reach out to conservatives,” said Rev. Mitch Hescox, president of the Evangelic Environmental Network, a large evangelical organization that advocates for action on climate change. Talking in terms of values is “the only way forward if we are to bring our fellow Republicans along,” he added. Some Republican politicians have begun to search for a new message on climate change, in an attempt to distance the party from those who oppose most efforts to limit greenhouse gases and have questioned the science explaining human-caused climate change. POPE TAKES LEAD Whether shifting moral beliefs can translate widely into a willingness to modify carbon-intensive lifestyles and assume the costs of weaning the U.S. economy off fossil fuels remains to be seen. U.S. sales of trucks and SUVs have been rising in recent months, for example, spurred by lower gasoline prices. But moral questions are increasingly invoked in the climate debate – and not just among anti-carbon activists. In a Feb. 12 speech to oil industry leaders in London, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden noted that “the issue is how to balance one moral obligation, energy access for all, against the other: fighting climate change.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also wrapped some of its anti-pollution initiatives in the language of “climate justice,” likening the battle against climate change to the mid-20th century fight for civil rights. Pope Francis also vowed to make fighting climate change a centerpiece of his papacy, using his authority as head of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics to push political leaders toward a deal at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Paris this December that is aimed at cutting carbon emissions. The pope has confronted critics of climate change science that finds human activities responsible for increases in global temperatures, saying in January that it is mostly "man who has slapped nature in the face.” Sixty-four percent of those polled agreed with the pope that human activities are largely responsible for the rising CO2 levels that scientists say drive climate change. The pope also criticized the negotiators at a global climate conference in Peru last December for “a lack of courage” and has promised to issue an encyclical – a letter setting out papal doctrine – on climate issues that he hopes will add momentum to getting a deal in Paris. In turn, he has been attacked by those who deny the scientific findings on global warming for aligning himself with environmentalists. But only one in 10 saw him as a voice of authority on the issue, on a par with Democrats and Republicans in Congress and less than the percentage citing President Barack Obama (18 percent). The poll respondents also said that United Nations scientists and a popular U.S. television host, Bill Nye "The Science Guy", carry more authority on climate change than U.S. politicians. The Reuters poll was conducted from Feb. 13 to 25 and the results were weighted to current U.S. population data by gender, age, education and ethnicity. It has a credibility interval - which measures the survey's precision - of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
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#1. To: Willie Green, Pericles (#0)
Another phony poll promoting the usual liberal ideology. These polls are very skewed in how they phrase questions and shape interviews with the people being polled. As so often, we should be more than a little suspicious when the results of the polling so closely matches the general political agenda of those paying for the poll so they can hype it as news in their little sad-rag mags and blogs and such. Since when did using a bunch of manipulative questions to poll a bunch of layabout homebodies and retirees who still have landline phones and are so bored they pour their guts out to any busybody calling to ask their opinion become the basis for forming public policy or any sort of serious politics. Most often, the survey says that Americans are a bunch of low-IQ rubes who fall for the same tricks over and over while the elite squabbles over which of them get to grab all the brass rings. I think that conservative media should simply stop taking polls or discussing them. It is yet another liberal game that is so rigged that Republicans can't win it. The only way to win is not to play by your opponents' rules and fighting on their chosen ground.
If you look down in the corner you will likely see, "Paid for by Al Bore."
“Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen, from the grave.” John Chrysostom www.evidenceforJesusChrist.org
The ones that believe that are dumbasses.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
What a crock of absolute HorseHillary! Most Americans don't think about climate change at all unless they are buying 7 dollar light bulbs with mercury in them,gasoline with corporate farm welfare ethanol in it,or some similar nonsense.
Why is democracy held in such high esteem when it’s the enemy of the minority and makes all rights relative to the dictates of the majority? (Ron Paul,2012)
Even worse, they don't seem to realize how counterproductive those are if you are actually concerned with the environment.
Most Americans are uneducated, self-indulgent, amoral morons. Now here's the scary part, they vote. But here's the really scary part, they breed. The world is totally f*cked in the head with little prospect for rationality and sanity being restored in the foreseeable future.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
But more importantly today most see the dress as white and gold. This is what demands news air time yesterday and today, along with Madonna taking a tumble on stage. WTF?
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
Polls are stupid. But they make for good headlines.
It wasn't long ago the weather lobby was decrying global warming. Now the horror is climate change which explains why we were buried in snow during the onslaught of global warming.
Most Americans are uneducated, self-indulgent, amoral morons. Now here's the scary part, they vote. But here's the really scary part, they breed. The world is totally f*cked in the head with little prospect for rationality and sanity being restored in the foreseeable future. Spot on
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. Robert Kennedy
It looked white and gold to me
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on. Robert Kennedy
#2. To: TooConservative (#1)
#3. To: Willie Green (#0)
" Most Americans see combating climate change as a moral duty "
#4. To: Willie Green (#0)
(Edited)
A significant majority of Americans say combating climate change is a moral issue that obligates them – and world leaders - to reduce carbon emissions, a Reuters/IPSOS poll has found.
#5. To: sneakypete (#4)
Most Americans don't think about climate change at all unless they are buying 7 dollar light bulbs with mercury in them,gasoline with corporate farm welfare ethanol in it,or some similar nonsense.
#6. To: Willie Green, All (#0)
Most Americans.............
#7. To: All (#0)
Most Americans see ...........
#8. To: Willie Green, TooConservative (#1)
#9. To: Willie Green (#0)
A significant majority of Americans say combating climate change is a moral issue that obligates them – and world leaders - to reduce carbon emissions, a Reuters/IPSOS poll has found.
#10. To: SOSO (#6)
#11. To: SOSO (#7)
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