Care About the Economy? Fix the Climate.
Addressing climate change will improve many “more important” issues, including the economy, immigration, health, national security…
As someone who thinks a lot about climate change, I’m always surprised that my fellow Americans don’t seem to think it’s a very big deal.
Don’t get me wrong — Americans have changed their views about the climate over the years. Significant majorities of Americans — even in overwhelmingly Republican states — now acknowledge that global warming is happening. Smaller, but still bipartisan, majorities tell pollsters that climate change is caused by humans and that government should do something about it. There’s broad support for an array of solutions, from using public land to produce green energy to giving tax rebates for carbon-free purchases. We’ve come a long way from the days when only 40% of Americans thought climate change was a major threat — and those days were only a decade ago.
Now, the main problem for those of us who care about climate change is not to get people to accept the science of climate change, it’s to get them to do something about it. Because while most Americans acknowledge climate change, climate solutions don’t rank very high on their priority lists. A recent Gallup poll of voters…
