TDS Co-Editor Ruy Teixeira’s latest ‘Public Opinion Snapshot’ at the Center for American Progress web pages makes a good companion piece to our staff post yesterday on Lee Fang’s expose of the right wing’s campaign to “swift boat” scientists concerned about global warming. Teixeira reports on a new poll, by WorldPublicOpinion.org, which indicates that a very healthy majority of the Amerian public supports “taking action to stop climate change.”:
…In the U.S. component of this survey, conducted in late September, 58 percent of the public said we had not done enough to deal with the problem of climate change, compared to 28 percent who thought we’d done the right amount and just 13 percent who thought we’d done too much.
Moreover, an overwhelming 82 percent said our country has a responsibility to take steps to deal with climate change.
Even more impressive:
The public’s sense of America’s responsibility in this area includes supporting a U.S. commitment to limit greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Copenhagen agreement, if other countries are willing to do the same. An identical 82 percent support such a commitment, compared to just 15 percent who don’t.
Looks like the climate-change denying swift-boaters have flunked, and badly. As Teixeira concludes, “Conservatives who urge slow or no action on climate change are fond of saying they represent the true voice of America on this issue, not progressives. As usual, they’re wrong.”