Climate Change Survey

Apparently there is an organization called the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). They claim to be a “nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization dedicated to work at the intersection of religion, values, and public life” who’s ”mission is to help journalists, opinion leaders, scholars, clergy, and the general public better understand debates on public policy issues and the role of religion in American public life by conducting high quality public opinion surveys and qualitative research.”

Ok, they seem to have some interesting stuff on their web site. The thing that sent me there in the first place was a story about a climate change survey.

Based upon the PRRI survey 63% of Americans agree that the weather has gotten more extreme. A minority, 29%, say it hasn’t and 6% say it’s gotten less extreme. This distribution reminds me of the old joke about being in the loop, being out of the loop and not even knowing there is a loop.

Most objective evidence implies the weather has gotten more extreme or at least has been more extreme over the past few years.

Democrats (76%) and Independents (59%) agree that the weather is getting more extreme. Republicans are, as usual, having some difficulty recognizing reality; only 46% say the weather is getting more extreme compared to 45% that say it isn’t.

A healthy majority of 63% say that the severity of recent natural disasters is evidence of climate change. About a third, 36%, say it’s evidence of biblical end times. Democrats (70%) and Independents (65%) agree that climate change is to blame but only 43% of Republicans agree.

Among Evangelical Christians, also sometimes known as the society of village idiots, 65% say recent severe weather is a sign of biblical end times.

More than 8 in 10 Democrats (86%) and three-quarters of Independents (75%) accept that temperatures have risen over the past few years. Only 54% of Republicans seem to have figured that out.

Here’s a scary one. Nearly 6-in-10 Americans (58%) say that God is in control of everything that happens in the world, while 38% disagree. Here’s an even scarier one, 57% of Americans, including 89% of Evangelical Christians, say that recent political choices made by Americans are moving the country away from God.

Now let’s talk about the end of the world. Among Evangelical Christians, 29% say the world will end in their lifetime. Among those with only a High School diploma 22% agree. Among those with a College degree only 5% agree.

So again we have evidence that education is the cure for Evangelical Christianity.