Human-Caused Global Warming: Views of U.S. Senators vs. Constituents
In January 2015, the U.S. Senate voted on an amendment sponsored by Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) stating that: “it is the sense of Congress that — (1) climate change is real; and (2) human activity significantly contributes to climate change.” 50 Senators voted in favor of the amendment, while 49 opposed it.
We recently published an article in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change describing a new statistical model that accurately estimates public opinion about climate change in all 50 states. Using the new model, we have calculated the percentage of Americans within each state that:
believe that global warming is caused mostly by human activities or is caused by both human activities and natural changes; or believe that global warming is either not happening or caused mostly by natural changes.
We compared each Senator’s vote on the Schatz amendment with the views of their own constituents, as depicted in the chart below. Please click here to access the full interactive chart.
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