Although the issue of climate change hasn’t come up very much during this election season, it may come as no surprise that Tea Party candidates and supporters are even more skeptical of the existence and effects of global warming that the general public.* Just 14% of tea partyers believe global warming is a problem, versus 49% of the public at large. And more than half of the tea partyers believe that climate change will have no serious effects in the future (versus 15% of the general public).
Which leads us to wonder how Sarah Palin explains the rapid melting of polar ice affecting her state. And whether midwestern tea-party supporters missed last week’s storm, which set a record for the lowest pressure (not associated with a hurricane) measured over land in the continental United States, a barometric pressure most typically recorded during a Category 3 hurricane.
This does not bode well for climate change legislation. As was quoted in the New York Times, “Whatever the party composition of the next Congress, cap-and-trade legislation is likely dead for the foreseeable future.”
*According to an October poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS News
