Poll Shows Tackling Climate Change Is Hugely Popular With Most Americans

According to a new Gallup poll, the vast majority of Americans believe that the government should be doing more to tackle climate change, with many even saying that we should prioritize that over the economy. But the truth is that you don't have to sacrifice one to save the other, and climate action is a huge net benefit to the overall economy in many different ways. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses the new poll and why our elected leaders always ignore information like this.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

According to a new survey from Gallup, a majority of Americans actually support measures to help combat climate change here in the United States, putting them of course directly at odds with the majority of our elected officials. Here are just some of the results from this poll. Let me read these. 89% favored providing tax credits to incentivize installing clean energy systems in homes. Three quarters favored tax incentives for businesses to use clean energy systems. 59% supported Biden's recent initiative to use federal money for electric vehicle charging stations across the country. 61% favored providing tax credits for those who purchase vehicles. 62% supported strict limits on the release of methane and natural gas production. 71% favorite higher fuel efficiency standards for vehicles.

And then there's this part and let me read, let me read this, but first let me give you a preface. Okay. This is from the Hill. Listen to the way they worded this part. Just below half of respondents, 42% generally prioritized economic growth over protecting the environment while 11% more prioritize environmental protection over economic growth. So the way they worded it, this was directly from the Hill, the way they worded it makes it kind of sound like maybe people think we should prioritize economic growth because instead of saying by 53% to 42% people favor environmental protection over economic growth, they worded it weirdly so you wouldn't understand it. That is an absolute malpractice of journalism coming from the Hill with that single quote designed to make you think that things aren't the way they are.

And that is beyond infuriating for me. So yes, 53% of the public says prioritizing environmental protection is more important than prioritizing economic growth. But even that in and of itself is a bit of malpractice on behalf of Gallup who asked the question because by asking that question, you are implying that the two things are completely separate. That you cannot have both environmental protection and economic growth and that's a lie. The two actually go hand in hand, I've talked about it a thousand times here, many other folks, well, a few other people have also talked about that from time to time. For every dollar we invest in clean energy or environmental protection and regulations, we get between a seven and $9 return for the economy.

So that means if I put $1 into environmental protection, I get $9 back, maybe as low as $7 back, but seven to one is still a good return on investment here. So not only could we be protecting the environment, a majority of the country wants that Republicans included, and we could be growing the economy at an exponential rate at a time when the economy is actually stagnating for working class people, inflation is high. Unemployment is low, but wages are not keeping pace with inflation. They also have not kept pace with just general CEO wages. So it makes good economic sense. It makes good environmental sense. Gallup should never have separated the two in their survey and the Hill should not have tried to disguise the results of this finding by wording it so incredibly weirdly in a pattern, by the way, that didn't fit with the way they reported the rest of the results that I read to you.

So that's a little weird as well. People wanna protect the environment, Republicans.