Majority support cap-and-trade system, especially if it created new green jobs
A new poll, taken in the midst of the scandal involving hacked emails from climate change scientists, shows that a significant majority (70 percent) of Americans agree with climatologists that the earth is warming.
61 percent of Americans who believe climate change is occurring pointed to human activities as the primary cause of the warming climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found in their last review that there was a 90 percent chance that rising temperatures were due to human activities.
Conducted by the Ipsos/McCaltchy from December 3-6th, the poll also found that a very slim majority (52 percent) of Americans are for a cap-and-trade system to lower greenhouse gas emissions. The percentage changed when participants were asked if they would agree with a cap-and-trade system if it raised their energy costs: 50 percent said they would still support it even if it raised costs 10 dollars a month, while 43 percent said they would still support cap-and-trade if it raised energy costs 25 dollars a month.
However, if cap-and-trade produced a significant number of new green jobs the percentages rose dramatically reflecting Americans’ concern with a troubling job market: 69 percent of Americans would be willing to pay 10 dollars a month and 60 percent would be willing to pay 25 dollars a month.
The poll interviewed 1,210 American and has a margin of error of 2.93 percent.
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