Global Warming Polarizes More Than Just Extreme Temperatures

Hikers in Melting Ice Caps

Climate change skepticism is not rooted in lack of knowledge or ignorance of key terms, but rather based on political party affiliation. In the past fifteen years, the belief in global warming gap between Democrats and Republicans has consistently widened; Democrats increasingly believe that global warming is occurring due to Al Gore leading the charge in carbon emission discoveries, while Republican skepticism in climate change data has caused a lack of belief in global warming.

The controversial effect of global warming is the increasing difference in seasonal temperatures. Climate is the accumulation of temperature and precipitation trends in certain areas of the world. Climate is often confused with weather, which is the experienced temperature and precipitation at any given moment. Global warming skeptics tend to proclaim that the Earth’s climate is not increasing due to the vastly cold temperatures in the winter; however, they are referring to regional reports of weather rather than of climate. These long durations of cold weather reports in the wintertime are attributed to the shift in the jet stream caused by the increasing average temperature of the Earth (i.e. climate).

Scientific statistics comparing the rise in emissions of greenhouse gases and the rise in the global average temperature prove that global warming does exist (4), but the reason for doubt in these statistics is not based on the public’s mistake of confusing the definitions of climate and weather; the doubt in these statistics resides in political bias. However, climate skeptics use the definition of weather in place of climate as a strategy to show their climate change disbelief. Record low temperatures in 2013 and 2014 in the southeastern United States gives means for climate change doubters to question global warming claims (1). While the author of the Nature article claims that their doubt in global warming arises from a lack of knowledge, political statistics show that their knowledge may not be lacking (2). The percentage of republicans who believe in global warming has declined from 49% to 42% in the past decade; these republicans believe that the media exaggerates the effects of global warming. On the other hand, the percentage of Democrats who believe that global warming is an occurring phenomenon has increased from 61% to 76% in the last decade.

Politicians at Climate Change Conference

The polarization of climate change support between Democrats and Republicans originates with President Ronald Reagan and his statement that “environment support hurts the economy” (2). Republican leaders (e.g. President George W. Bush) assert that there are more pressing issues than global warming, causing Republicans not to support global warming initiatives. As followers, Republican constituents tend to share the same idea as their leaders, so a more Republicans find other political issues more pressing than do Democrats, who strongly support green energy initiatives.

About 60% (in 2008 and declining) of Republicans believe that global warming is not actually caused by human activity, but by a natural fluctuation of the global average temperature (2). Their reasoning emerged from a 2008 scandal by Climategate, which revealed scientists giving false information about recent climate trends and actual climate graphs portraying an oscillation of global temperature rather than a rising one (3). Democrats, on the other hand, support the vast studies done by many scientists showing the direct trends between carbon emissions and rise in global temperature (4).

Al Gore ran part of his 2000 presidential campaign on green energy reform, calling for a need to reduce carbon emissions. As a result, a surge of Democrats began to research and believe in Gore’s claims. His 2004 movie, An Inconvenient Truth, also sparked climate change support from Democrats and other scholars because of his video evidence and scientific data to support his claims that carbon emissions directly affect the average global temperature. Because Al Gore released his movie just four years after his presidential campaign, conservatives were still unsupportive of his proposals. In fact, a sharp decline of Republican belief in the seriousness of global warming ensued in 2004 (2), the same year Al Gore began his Inconvenient Truth campaign.

In the past fifteen years, the belief in global warming gap between Democrats and Republicans has consistently widened; Democrats increasingly believe that global warming is occurring due to Al Gore leading the charge in carbon emission discoveries, while Republican skepticism in climate change data has caused a lack of belief in global warming. The increase in polarization between party lines, in effect, causes the polarization between climate change skeptics and climate change believers. Climate change skepticism is based on political party affiliation rather than ignorance in proven scientific facts.



1. "Cool Heads Needed." Nature News. Nature Publishing Group, 15 Jan. 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.


2. Dunlap, Riley E., and Aaron M. McCright. "A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change." Tandfonline. N.p., 7 Aug. 2010. Web. 3 Feb. 2014. <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35>.


3. Ferrara, Peter. "'Fakegate' Follows 'Climategate'" Townhall.com. N.p., 7 Mar. 2012. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. <http://townhall.com/columnists/peterferrara/2012/03/07/fakegate_follows_climategate/page/full>.

4. Karl, Thomas R., and Kevin E. Trenberth. "Modern Global Climate Change." Science Online. Facts On File News Services, 5 Dec. 2003. Web. 3 Feb. 2014. <http://www.sciencemag.org/content/302/5651/1719.full>.