Doomed! Survey says most Americans lack crucial ‘gateway belief’ in climate change consensus
Since we seem to be having a Vox-centric day here at Twitchy, why not make room for one more piece from the explainers hard at work there? This one’s surprising because it sounds a lot to us not only like fake news, but fake news that’s good for climate change skeptics.
Almost 90% of Americans dont know theres scientific consensus on global warming https://t.co/m3PP05V0cX
— Eliza Barclay (@elizabarclay) July 6, 2017
This is so alarming I almost don't believe it. I can't believe that most of my fellow liberals don't know there is general consensus.
— LP (@LegLamp) July 6, 2017
You made that number up. I'm sure it's high. But I'm 100% certain that you pulled that 90% out of your ass. Everyone makes up statistics.
— HamBurgler (@HamiltonBurger) July 6, 2017
According to a recently conducted survey of 1,266 adults, “only 13 percent of Americans correctly identified that more than 90 percent of all climate scientists have concluded that human-caused global warming is happening.” Again, that just seems impossible believe, if only for the fact that any climate skeptic who speaks up is “corrected” immediately by hordes citing the mythical “97 percent” number.
Vox’s concern is that the perception of an overwhelming scientific consensus is essential to motivating people to take action something the authors of the study knew full well and included in their introduction:
Why is perception of scientific consensus so important? Turns out that its actually a gateway belief to support for public action on climate change, according to a study from 2015 cited in the report. In other words, the more one perceives there to be a scientific consensus on the reality of human-caused climate change, the more likely they are to believe that it is real and worrisome. And the more one believes that human-caused climate change is real and worrisome, the more likely one is to support public action on the issue.
Not only does science not operate by consensus; the 97 percent figure itself is the result of a study a study that no one seems to question. So now we’re looking at a survey to determine how many Americans are aware of a study about which they’ve been told practically nothing aside from a single number.
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