14 DAY TRIAL // According to a nation-wide poll conducted last autumn, more than 90 percent of all American citizens believe that the US should act to stop the effects of climate change, and should also employ measures to curb global warming. The respondents believed that the government should become engaged in such efforts even despite the fact that the economy was in a crisis at the moment. Thirty-four percent said that they would support large sums of money being spent from the federal budget on such an initiative.
The study was published on Wednesday by researchers from the Yale and George Mason Universities, and showed that at least 66 percent of Americans considered that the country should engage on a course that would guarantee the drastical reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and that the jobs lost in processing fossil fuels should be replaced with others in the “green industry.”
Only 7 percent of respondents upheld that the US should only act if other developing nations acted as well. “When you make a mess, you're supposed to clean up after yourself. We think many Americans view climate change in a similar way. The United States should act to reduce it's own emissions regardless of what other countries do,” Yale University researcher Anthony Leiserowitz argued.
According to the survey, some 92 percent of US citizens believed that renewable energy was the way of the future and that the federal government should spend the largest sums of money in this area. Some 85 percent also had it that individuals who bought solar panels for their homes, or fuel-efficient vehicles should also receive tax rebates, which would make the total costs of these products lower, so that more people could afford them. Finally, 80 percent agreed that carbon dioxide needed to be classified as a pollutant.
Roughly 53 percent of respondents stated that the US should implement a carbon cap-and-trade system, while 23 percent strongly opposed this initiative. “If the president and members of Congress want to pass cap-and-trade legislation this year, they would be wise to quickly take steps to educate the American people,” George Mason University investigator Edward Maibach maintained.
“Translating consumers' intentions into concrete action will largely depend on the success of efforts to educate, organize and mobilize this growing market force. Many companies are moving aggressively to tap this consumer market, which is increasingly willing to reward and punish different companies for their climate change-related activities,” Leiserowitz concluded.