There was an intriguing poll released recently by Gonzales Research & Media Services, the Anne Arundel County-based polling and data analysis firm. Gonzales pollsters asked Marylanders what they thought of Gov. Wes Moore’s plan to end sales of new gas-powered vehicles in Maryland by 2035 in order to switch to electric — as California has done. A hefty 61% said they opposed that idea, but here comes the important part: When respondents were then told that the regulations would significantly cut carbon emissions, quite a few of them had second thoughts with support for EV-only cars growing by 11 percentage points.
One might argue, perhaps, that throwing out that extra information is what researchers would call a “response bias,” meaning that people taking the poll felt obligated to react to this way. But there’s another possibility: Many people aren’t especially well-informed on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions or how vehicle exhaust contributes to both. They don’t have enough knowledge to make an informed choice.
We were reminded of this apparent deficit earlier this month when much of the Northeast was blanketed by smoke that had drifted south from raging wildfires in eastern Canada, causing some of the most smoke-polluted air to hit the Baltimore area in a quarter century. People who may not be aware of carbon dioxide, which is colorless and odorless and — along with methane, nitrous oxide and certain synthetic fluorinated gases — trapping heat around the planet, can tell when smoke is burning their eyes and lungs.
Experts correctly pointed out that wildfires have been worsened and made more frequent by climate change and this warming (and often drying, drought-inducing) trend. Skeptics were quick to point out there are other factors that can contribute to wildfires, such as excess underbrush and poor forestry management. That’s true but not contradictory. Yet the usual suspects in the political right were quick to denounce those who ascribe every weather event to climate change. “New York has the worst air quality in history due to wild fires from Climate Cult Canada,” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted with a photo of the George Washington Bridge enveloped in orange smoke.
That many lack much understanding of an often-complicated scientific issue should not surprise us, but there are several problems here. First is that climate has too often become a politically polarizing issue, and so recognizing its impact (or denying it exists) is widely seen as a way of supporting one’s party. Fighting climate change is a priority for Democrats but not for Republicans. There’s an age gap, too. Millennials, likely because they grew up learning about climate change in school, rate it as a top priority; baby boomers not as much. And, according to the Pew Research Center, the gap is especially evident when it comes to remedies like taxing emissions or imposing tougher fuel efficiency standards on cars, which a small majority of GOP voters oppose but 87% of Democrats favor. That’s quite a split. How does one develop a national consensus for reducing the use of fossil fuels when so many GOP leaders are happily appearing on Fox News to tout the benefits of burning more oil, gas and coal?
Yet it’s one thing to have disagreements over arguable points on controversial issues such as legalized sports wagering. It’s quite another to deny science and claim climate change is a hoax, as then-President Donald Trump did when he rolled back numerous clean air protections, given the existential threat involved. Some have predicted climate change around the globe may cause the deaths of a quarter-million more people each year and force over 100 million more into poverty by 2030, from weather and climate disasters, the rising sea levels and flooding, with the worst impacts often falling on marginalized communities.
Want to help save the planet — and maybe the lives of your descendants? On top of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, public education needs to be a high priority. Not everyone has learned about the consequences of a warming planet (or even the data that documents this alarming change from historic norms). Whether the information comes from schools, colleges, churches, government or advocates, it needs to billow forth in all directions like wildfire smoke. Who wants to drive an electric car? Any rational person interested in reducing the harm caused by global warming.
