NY Times Reports on Professor Matto Mildenberger's Research

Professor Matto Mildenberger's co-authored research: "The Spatial distribution of Republican and Democratic climate opinions at local scales" is drawing attention across the country. The NY Times recently picked up the story and has published a number of maps from the work, representing Republican views on climate change throughout the United States. Read the excerpt below and see the entire NY Times article here.

 

 

Over the past two decades, Republicans have grown increasingly doubtful about climate change, even as Democrats have grown increasingly convinced that it’s happening and is caused by humans. But recent research published in the journal Climatic Change reveals greater nuance in partisan climate opinions across the country.

“Pockets of Republicans, or even a plurality or majority, support some pro-climate issues,” said Matto Mildenberger, a professor of political science at the University of California Santa Barbara and lead author on the study. Researchers found variation in Democratic beliefs too, he said, but those findings were less politically relevant because a majority of Democrats tend to accept climate science and support related policies no matter where they live.

The study’s maps show how Republican support swings between minority and majority, depending on geography and how questions are posed.

Across the country, most
Republicans don’t think humans
are causing climate change.

Percentage of Republicans in each congressional district who say that global warming is caused mostly by human activities

30%

40

50

60

70

National average: 31%

WASH.

ME.

MONT.

N.D.

VT.

MINN.

ORE.

N.H.

MASS.

IDAHO

WIS.

N.Y.

S.D.

MICH.

WYO.

R.I.

IOWA

CONN.

PA.

NEB.

N.J.

OHIO

IND.

DEL.

ILL.

UTAH

MD.

NEV.

W.VA.

COLO.

KAN.

CALIF.

VA.

KY.

MO.

N.C.

OKLA.

TENN.

ARIZ.

ARK.

S.C.

N.M.

GA.

MISS.

ALA.

TEXAS

LA.

ALASKA

FLA.

HAWAII

Fewer than a third of registered Republicans nationwide say that climate change is caused mostly by human activities, while nearly half say it’s mostly due to “natural changes in the environment,” according to the study, which looked at eight years of opinion data and mapped the results by congressional district.