Most Americans Support Government Action on Climate Change, Poll Finds

An overwhelming majority of the American public, including nearly half of Republicans, support government action to curb global warming, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times, Stanford University and the nonpartisan environmental research group Resources for the Future.

In a finding that could have implications for the 2016 presidential campaign, the poll also found that two-thirds of Americans say they are more likely to vote for political candidates who campaign on fighting climate change. They are less likely to vote for candidates who question or deny the science of human-caused global warming.

Among Republicans, 48 percent said they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supports fighting climate change, a result that Jon A. Krosnick, a professor of political science at Stanford University and an author of the survey, called "the most powerful finding" in the poll.  Many Republican candidates either question the science of climate change or do not publicly address the issue.
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Over all, the number of Americans who believe that climate change is caused by human activity is growing.  In a 2011 Stanford University poll, 72 percent of people thought climate change was caused at least in part by human activities.  That grew to 81 percent in the latest poll.  By party, 88 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents and 71 percent of Republicans said that climate change was caused at least in part by human activities.

Read more at Most Americans Support Government Action on Climate Change, Poll Finds - NYTimes.com