Florida Atlantic University Researchers Say Florida’s Republican and Democrat Voters Nearly Agree on Climate Change

Florida Atlantic University Researchers Say Florida’s Republican and Democrat Voters Nearly Agree on Climate Change

Research from Florida Atlantic University suggests Florida’s Republican and Democrat voters nearly agree on the existence of climate change but differ on the cause. According to the researchers, approximately nine out of 10 Florida Republicans believe climate change exists. Approximately 96 percent of Florida Democrat voters agree.

Regarding the cause of climate change, half of Florida Republicans believe it is a man-made issue, while nearly 75 percent of Florida Democrat voters would concur.

The FAU research suggests the difference of opinion on the cause of climate change could be a reason why lawmakers are open to discussing climate change policy in the Florida Legislature but rarely agree on a solution.

Colin Polsky, director for Environmental Studies and a professor of geosciences at FAU’s College of Science, said Floridians’ shifting attitudes toward climate change was a result of the President Donald J. Trump administration and then the COVID pandemic.

“This sequence of results – five surveys since 2019 – begins to paint a picture of Floridians’ attitudes during a period of particularly dynamic political, economic and environmental conditions. During the period of these five surveys, public opinion about climate change was likely shaped negatively by the Trump Administration’s 2017 decision to retract the United States from the United Nations 2015 Paris Climate Accord. Similarly, the importance of climate change for the public was likely diminished in response to new, immediate daily concerns associated with the coronavirus pandemic and economic crises it triggered. As such, these Florida opinion survey results about climate change can be viewed as reflecting public sentiment net of at least two significant external and independent influences on public opinion.” 

The FAU research noted that Floridians’ views on climate change are vastly different than national surveys they observed. According to their data, only half of Republicans across the country believe in “global warming,” and only approximately 33 percent believe in “global warming” caused by humans.

Earlier in November, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced the appointment of Wesley Brooks as Florida’s next chief resilience officer whose job is to tackle climate change in Florida. The position was created during the DeSantis Administration in 2019 with the job description of observing “sea-level rise” and “other climate change impacts.”

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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips. 

Republished with permission from The Florida Capital Star

13 Responses to "Florida Atlantic University Researchers Say Florida’s Republican and Democrat Voters Nearly Agree on Climate Change"

  1. If you people hadn’t proved how ignorant you were during the pandemic, then misunderstanding climate change has given you yet another opportunity.

    Of course, there are less of you this time as millions more Republicans died of COVID and the recent hurricanes took down solid red areas.

    Keep going like you are and there will be no right-wing survivors. It’s survival of the mentally-fittest and you people fail.

  2. Edward,

    Finally, some true facts on climate change!

    Also very funny, I don’t care who you are! (By permission of Larry the cable guy.)

  3. OT: local news services are promoting and giving credence to the lie that Leon County Schools used the fact that there is an LBGT website with links to justify their bad behaviour against our childern.
    Thats the lamest 5 year old child like excuse ever. The local news Rocky sycophants make me sick for supporting and publicizing this false narrative which is designed to make you believe Rocky and his stooges knew nothing about the child abuse related to the in school LBGT conversion programs.
    Wake up dont be fooled by the local Rocky sycophant media crew. It was not OK to do this travesty to our precious childern and Rocky knew all about it.

  4. The effect of man-made CO2 on our climate is roughly equal to the effect of going out in the middle of a hurricane and farting twice.

  5. We’ve been hearing “global cooling”, “global warming”, and “climate change” for more than 50 years now with each have a “10 year warning” before the sky falls and the coastlines flood.

    It made Al Gore hundreds of millions of dollars, so I guess it’s fair to say that the hysteria did accomplish something.

    But as far as rushing into global changes goes, 50 years of “wait and see” has been the correct approach so far….

  6. The climate changes at my house on a nearly constant bases due to two science-based factors…

    1. Menopause
    2. Thermostat

  7. The left makes fun of the right for believing in a higher power, yet they believe if you send enough of our taxpayer’s money to poor countries, you can actually change the weather? The whole climate change fiasco, real or not, is about wealth redistribution. Plain and simple.

  8. Wait a minute now…so when a leftist funded University conducts a “poll” we now are allowed to call the poll “research” ?
    Giggle giggle that feels good…blow some more smoke up my pants leg!

  9. Well said, Edward.

    The climate change hysteria is a push for world government as is the covid hysteria, the open border policies, and the planned economic collapse.

    I heard Nancy Pelosi and her husband are buying a very expensive water front mansion on the east coast of Florida. I guess they are only so worried about the sea level rising.

  10. climate change does exist BUT not how the Democrats WANT you to believe. Research the History of Earth’s Climate before the Democrats, Woke, and Leftists change that too.

  11. The climate has been changing since the beginning of time, and will continue to change until the end of time. To believe that we can alter the evolutionary path of our planet by driving a Prius and/or eliminating cow flatulence… is ignorant hubris at best.

    Wasn’t it that esteemed scientist and climatologist, Sandy Cortez (AOC), who predicted the world will end in just a few years from now… or was that Gretta, The Angry Adolescent, who made that call?

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