Trump At Odds With Youth And Public On Climate Change

On Friday, students from around the world (thousands from 2,000 cities in 100 countries) demonstrated to try and provoke action to stop global climate change (also referred to as global warming). They are smart enough to know that they and their future children will be the ones most affected by the climate changes -- and they want those in power to do something before it is too late.

Sadly, Donald Trump (and the congressional Republicans) are doing just the opposite. Trump has rolled back initiatives by President Obama to try and curb climate change, and has withdrawn this country from the Paris Accords. I think he knows that he's on the wrong side of history, because he is creating a commission to "investigate" climate change. This commission is nothing more than an attempt to whitewash Trump's position. He has appointed a climate change denier as commission chair.

The chart above shows why he may be getting worried, and wanting to produce a White House report to try and change minds on the issue. It shows that a majority of adults (54%) in the U.S. believe climate change is happening, and that it is due to human activity (abuse and overuse of fossil fuels).  And that is the opinion of all groups.

The chart reflects the results of the newest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between March 10th and 12th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,279 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3.1 points, and for registered voters is 2.8 points.