Conservatives don't think global warming will happen in their lifetimes

Everyone except conservative Republicans seems to agree that global warming will happen in their lifetime, according to a new Gallup survey released Wednesday, just in time for Earth Day.

Fewer than four in 10 self-identified conservative Republicans — 37 percent — think that global warming will occur in their lifetime, while 19 percent believe it will affect future generations.


A plurality of those conservatives — 40 percent — responded that it will never happen, a sharp contrast with respondents of every other party or ideology. Only 16 percent of moderate or liberal Republicans say climate change will never happen, as do just 14 percent of non-leaning independents, 5 percent of conservative or moderate Democrats and only 3 percent of liberal Democrats.

Conservative Republicans are also least likely to believe that global warming comes from human pollution, with 70 percent chalking up increasing temperatures to natural changes in the environment and just 27 percent saying that humans are mostly responsible.

Nearly six in 10 liberal Democrats — 58 percent — responded that global warming is a serious threat to their way of life, but no other group responded similarly in the majority. Just 12 percent of conservative Republicans agree.

In this survey, the Democratic and Republican samples include independents who self-identify as leaning toward either party.

The results come from an aggregated sample of interviews conducted with 6,154 adults in March of every year from 2010 to 2015 as part of Gallup’s annual environmental poll. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point. Among 1,073 liberal Democrats, the margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points; for the 1,536 moderate or conservative Democrats, the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points; for 916 moderate or liberal Republicans, the margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points; for the 1,877 conservative Republicans, the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.