Climate Change Policy Strongly Opposed by Americans

BY JASON LE MIERE
4/6/17 AT 1:21 PM

... More than three-quarters of Americans surveyed — 76 percent — are at least somewhat concerned by climate change, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, with 59 percent saying more needs to be done to address the problem.

Trump signed an executive order last week gutting former President Barack Obama’s landmark Clean Power Plan. At the signing, Trump appeared alongside coal workers and celebrated the order for saving and reviving the coal industry. The order followed through on his promise to prioritize jobs rather than tackling the issue of climate change, which has seen the average temperature on the planet rise by 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century and is expected to see it rise several more degrees in the coming decades, causing dangerous rises in sea levels.

However, 68 percent of Americans responding to the Quinnipiac poll, which surveyed 1,171 voters nationwide from March 20 to April 3, said that the U.S. could both protect jobs and fight climate change. Only 24 percent said one goal hurt the other, with 72 percent responding that it was a “bad idea” to cut funding for scientific research. Overall, only 18 percent indicated that the United States was doing enough to combat climate change, with the same figure stating the country was doing too much ...

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-climate-change-policies-poll-580049