©Copyright 2019, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.

Thirty-five percent of Iowa's registered Republicans believe climate change poses no real threat to the planet, the newest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.

Forty-four percent of Iowa Republicans say they believe climate change is a minor threat, and 14 percent say it’s a major threat. Six percent aren't sure.

The poll, taken March 3-6 and conducted by Selzer & Co., surveyed 400 registered Iowa Republicans. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

“I just don’t buy the science,” said poll participant Lynette Stubbs, a retiree who lives in Moville, a town of about 1,620 near Sioux City.

Scientists say the evidence for rapid climate change is compelling: The global temperature has warmed 1.62 degrees, primarily over the past 35 years, caused by carbon dioxide and other gases trapped in the atmosphere.

Climate change is warming the oceans, shrinking ice sheets, driving sea levels higher and leading to more extreme weather, among other impacts, scientists say.

“That may be happening, but it’s not because of anything we’re doing either positively or negatively,” said poll respondent Orlan Huizenga of Orange City.

“The good Lord above would not make a world that couldn’t sustain itself,” he said.

Huizenga thinks studies are conducted to fit a political narrative that supports climate change.

“I see a lot of money being thrown at climate change, but nothing is being done,” Huizenga said, pointing to the Paris Agreement, a global accord to address climate change from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. in 2017.

“What benefit did the United States get? We abided by a lot of rules that nobody else did,” Huizenga said.

Education levels play a role in registered Iowa Republicans' perceptions of a threat. Seventy-one percent of those with a college degree or higher see climate change as a major or minor threat, compared to 58 percent overall and to 51 percent of those without a degree.

Age also plays a role: 66 percent of those under 35 see it as a major or minor threat, the highest of all age groups.

Self-identified moderates (72 percent) and self-identified independents (70 percent) are also more likely to see it as a threat.

The March 3-6 Iowa Poll also questioned 401 likely Democratic caucusgoers on a variety of topics, including how much time they want candidates to spend talking about certain issues. Eighty percent of that group want presidential candidates to spend a lot of time talking about climate change, second only to health care among 11 issues tested. The poll of likely Democratic caucusgoers has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

About this poll

The Iowa Poll, conducted March 3-6, 2019, for The Des Moines Register, CNN and Mediacom by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, is based on telephone interviews with 401 registered voters in Iowa who say they will definitely or probably attend the 2020 Democratic caucuses and 400 registered Republicans.

Interviewers with Quantel Research contacted 1,618 randomly selected active voters from the Iowa secretary of state’s voter registration list by telephone. The sample was supplemented with additional phone number lookups. Interviews were administered in English. Responses for all contacts were adjusted by age and sex to reflect their proportions among active voters in the list. For the registered Republican sample, responses for the 418 registered Republican contacts were adjusted by age and sex to reflect their proportions among active registered Republicans in the voter registration list.

Questions based on the sample of 401 voters likely to attend the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses have a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points, as does the sample of 400 registered Republicans. This means that if this survey were repeated using the same questions and the same methodology, 19 times out of 20, the findings would not vary from the true population value by more than plus or minus 4.9 percentage points. Results based on smaller samples of respondents — such as by gender or age — have a larger margin of error.

Republishing the copyright Iowa Poll without credit to The Des Moines Register, CNN, and Mediacom is prohibited.