A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change

While this stimulated a temporary backlash from environmentalists and much of the public during Reagan's first term,2 the "Reagan Revolution," based on the theme that "government is the problem, not the solution," provided electoral success for the Republican Party for a qua...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Environment : science and policy for sustainable development Vol. 50; no. 5; pp. 26 - 35
Main Authors:	Dunlap, Riley E., McCright, Araon M.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Washington Heldref 01-09-2008 Kirkpatrick Jordon Foundation
Subjects:	Climate change Climate science Conservation Democratic parties Environmental policy Environmental protection Global warming Indexing in process Media coverage Political activism Political affiliation Political parties Presidential elections Public opinion polls Q1 Republican parties Scientists Skepticism Trends U.S.A Voters Iraq
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Summary:	While this stimulated a temporary backlash from environmentalists and much of the public during Reagan's first term,2 the "Reagan Revolution," based on the theme that "government is the problem, not the solution," provided electoral success for the Republican Party for a quarter century.3 The antienvironmental orientation of the Republican Party became salient again following the Newt Gingrich-led Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, sparking a modest negative reaction from the public,4 and has been greatly amplified during the George W. Bush administration5 but with little discernible political cost-probably because the war on terror and the Iraq war have until recently dominated the policy agenda.6 A consequence of these trends has been a growing divide along party lines over environmental protection, among other government programs. [...] a significant part of the U.S. conservative movement-made up of conservative foundations, think tanks, media, and public intellectuals-mobilized in the 1990s to challenge both climate science and climate policy.10 Conservative activists wrote hundreds of documents (including policy briefs, books, press releases, and op-eds), held numerous policy forums and press conferences, appeared regularly on television and radio programs, and testified at congressional hearings on global warming.11 It would appear that the vigorous conservative campaign against climate science (particularly the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)) and climate change advocates (especially Al Gore) has contributed to leaders of the Republican Party adopting a highly skeptical view of global warming.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:	0013-9157 1939-9154
DOI:	10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35