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 The poll of 2,827 Americans was conducted in February to measure
the impact of moral language, including interventions by Pope
Francis, on the climate change debate. In recent months, the pope
has warned about the moral consequences of failing to act on rising
global temperatures, which are expected to disproportionately affect
the lives of the world’s poor.
The result of the poll suggests that appeals based on ethics could
be key to shifting the debate over climate change in the United
States, where those demanding action to reduce carbon emissions and
those who resist it are often at loggerheads.
Two-thirds of respondents (66 percent) said that world leaders are
morally obligated to take action to reduce CO2 emissions. And 72
percent said they were “personally morally obligated” to do what
they can in their daily lives to reduce emissions.
“When climate change is viewed through a moral lens it has broader
appeal,” said Eric Sapp, executive director of the American Values
Network, a grassroots organization that mobilizes faith-based
communities on politics and policy issues.
“The climate debate can be very intellectual at times, all about
economic systems and science we don’t understand. This makes it
about us, our neighbors and about doing the right thing.”
Some observers believe the pope’s message can resonate beyond his
own church.
“The moral imperative is the way to reach out to conservatives,”
said Rev. Mitch Hescox, president of the Evangelic Environmental
Network, a large evangelical organization that advocates for action
on climate change.
Talking in terms of values is “the only way forward if we are to
bring our fellow Republicans along,” he added.
Some Republican politicians have begun to search for a new message
on climate change, in an attempt to distance the party from those
who oppose most efforts to limit greenhouse gases and have
questioned the science explaining human-caused climate change.
POPE TAKES LEAD
Whether shifting moral beliefs can translate widely into a
willingness to modify carbon-intensive lifestyles and assume the
costs of weaning the U.S. economy off fossil fuels remains to be
seen. U.S. sales of trucks and SUVs have been rising in recent
months, for example, spurred by lower gasoline prices.
But moral questions are increasingly invoked in the climate debate –
and not just among anti-carbon activists.
In a Feb. 12 speech to oil industry leaders in London, Royal Dutch
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden noted that “the issue is how to balance
one moral obligation, energy access for all, against the other:
fighting climate change.”
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also wrapped some of
its anti-pollution initiatives in the language of “climate justice,”
likening the battle against climate change to the mid-20th century
fight for civil rights.
Pope Francis also vowed to make fighting climate change a
centerpiece of his papacy, using his authority as head of the
world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics to push political leaders toward
a deal at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Paris this
December that is aimed at cutting carbon emissions.
The pope has confronted critics of climate change science that finds
human activities responsible for increases in global temperatures,
saying in January that it is mostly "man who has slapped nature in
the face.”
Sixty-four percent of those polled agreed with the pope that human
activities are largely responsible for the rising CO2 levels that
scientists say drive climate change.
The pope also criticized the negotiators at a global climate
conference in Peru last December for “a lack of courage” and has
promised to issue an encyclical – a letter setting out papal
doctrine – on climate issues that he hopes will add momentum to
getting a deal in Paris.
In turn, he has been attacked by those who deny the scientific
findings on global warming for aligning himself with
environmentalists.
But only one in 10 saw him as a voice of authority on the issue, on
a par with Democrats and Republicans in Congress and less than the
percentage citing President Barack Obama (18 percent). The poll
respondents also said that United Nations scientists and a popular
U.S. television host, Bill Nye "The Science Guy", carry more
authority on climate change than U.S. politicians.
The Reuters poll was conducted from Feb. 13 to 25 and the results
were weighted to current U.S. population data by gender, age,
education and ethnicity. It has a credibility interval - which
measures the survey's precision - of plus or minus 2.1 percentage
points.
(Editing by Stuart Grudgings)
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