To understand why the new global warming survey by Stanford's Jon Krosnick is such a mixed bag for climate advocates, just read Kevin Drum's despairing reaction to it. But I'm getting ahead of myself. As Krosnick lays out convincingly in this meaty NYT op-ed:
huge majorities of Americans still believe the earth has been gradually warming as the result of human activity and want the government to institute regulations to stop it.
So far, so good, right? Read on (emphasis added):
Fully 86 percent of our respondents said they wanted the federal government to limit the amount of air pollution that businesses emit, and 76 percent favored government limiting business's emissions of greenhouse gases in particular. Not a majority of 55 or 60 percent "” but 76 percent. Large majorities opposed taxes on electricity (78 percent) and gasoline (72 percent) to reduce consumption. But 84 percent favored the federal government ...
