Fewer GOP Voters Worried About Climate Change Since Irma and Harvey

But more Republicans say they back Paris climate accord

Morning Consult cited Myron Ebell about the polarization of public discussion regarding climate change in contemporary debate owing to the limitation on the breadth of discussion about the topic down to mere talking points in public media.

Bledsoe said he suspects the deeply partisan atmosphere over climate change won’t last forever. “My hope is that the views of Americans will normalize once Trump is no longer on the political scene, but it will be difficult to move Republicans with his vitriolic rhetoric about fighting climate change,” he said in a Wednesday phone interview.

As for the figures showing a rise in Republican support for the United States to remain party to the 2015 Paris climate agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the free market public policy group Competitive Enterprise Institute, blames “global warming talking points” circulating in the media.

Ebell, who also headed up Trump’s transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency, said in a phone interview Wednesday that the boost in support for Paris, including among Republicans, is not likely to impact whether the United States ultimately withdraws from the pact. Now that Trump has Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, Larry Kudlow as his top economic adviser and John Bolton as national security adviser, “I think that they will do a much better job of articulating the reasons” for withdrawing from the Paris accord, he said.

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