Perceived scientific agreement and support for government action on climate change in the USA
Perceived scientific agreement and support for government action on climate change in the USA
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DOI：
10.1007/s10584-013-0704-9
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发表时间：
2013-07-01
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Xiao, Chenyang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
McCright, Aaron M.;Dunlap, Riley E.;Xiao, Chenyang
鉴于美国有充分证据证明否认人为气候变化的真实性和严重性的运动（其主要目标是在决策者和公众的头脑中“制造不确定性”），我们研究了对全球变暖的科学共识的看法对公众对全球变暖的信念和对政府减排行动的支持的影响。Ding等人最近的一项研究（Nat Clim Chang:462-466, 2011）利用2010年具有全国代表性的调查数据发现，气候科学家对科学共识的误解与对气候政策的支持程度较低以及认为应该采取行动应对全球变暖的信念有关。我们的研究使用2012年3月以来具有全国代表性的调查数据，复制并扩展了Ding等人（Nat Clim Chang:462-466, 2011）。我们总体上证实了他们的发现，这表明在全球变暖观点和对气候政策的支持方面，感知到的科学共识的关键作用是强大的。此外，我们表明，政治取向对感知的科学共识、全球变暖信念和对政府减排行动的支持有显著影响。我们的研究结果表明，提高公众对全球变暖的科学共识的认识很重要，但不能引发或加剧意识形态或党派分歧。
Given the well-documented campaign in the USA to deny the reality and seriousness of anthropogenic climate change (a major goal of which is to "manufacture uncertainty" in the minds of policy-makers and the general public), we examine the influence that perception of the scientific agreement on global warming has on the public's beliefs about global warming and support for government action to reduce emissions. A recent study by Ding et al. (Nat Clim Chang 1:462-466, 2011) using nationally representative survey data from 2010 finds that misperception of scientific agreement among climate scientists is associated with lower levels of support for climate policy and beliefs that action should be taken to deal with global warming. Our study replicates and extends Ding et al. (Nat Clim Chang 1:462-466, 2011) using nationally representative survey data from March 2012. We generally confirm their findings, suggesting that the crucial role of perceived scientific agreement on views of global warming and support for climate policy is robust. Further, we show that political orientation has a significant influence on perceived scientific agreement, global warming beliefs, and support for government action to reduce emissions. Our results suggest the importance of improving public perception of the scientific agreement on global warming, but in ways that do not trigger or aggravate ideological or partisan divisions.