Trumpsters more apt to pooh-pooh global warming

DURHAM, N.H. - New Hampshire voters who support Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders for president differ sharply in their beliefs about the global rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, a recent University of New Hampshire poll found. Trump supporters are much less likely (47 percent) than Sanders supporters (78 percent) to believe the well-established scientific observation that atmospheric CO2 levels have increased in recent decades.

Similar contrasts occurred when matching Trump vs. Biden voters (45 to 79 percent) and Trump vs. Clinton voters (46 to 78 percent).

The WMUR/CNN poll conducted by the UNH Survey Center asked voters who they would vote for if the 2016 presidential election was being held today (Trump vs. Sanders, Clinton and Biden) as well as a question about whether the concentration of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere is increasing, decreasing or staying about the same.

Putting together responses to the political and CO2 questions, researcher Lawrence Hamilton, a UNH sociologist and senior fellow at the Carsey School of Public policy, noticed a 31-point gap between Sanders and Trump supporters. Seventy-eight percent of those who said they would vote for Sanders in that match-up, but only 47 percent of those favoring Trump, agreed with scientists that CO2 is increasing.

"Party-line divisions are a common finding now when surveys ask science or environmental questions," Hamilton said. "What was unusual this time was the unplanned combination of a basic science question with pre-election match-ups in an early-primary state."

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