The minority viewpoint.
Eleven years after 9/11 — if you can believe it has been that long — the Chicago Council on Global Affairs decided to gauge how Americans’ views on global security have evolved.
First and foremost, concern over global terrorism has dropped precipitously, with more significant declines evident among younger populations. But we’re here to talk about the changing climate. How do Americans feel climate change ranks as an important foreign policy goal?
They don’t.
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Only one-third of respondents listed climate change as a “very important” goal, down two percentage points from 2010. Worse, climate change was third-to-last, after “strengthening the United Nations.” A February poll suggested that 61 percent of Americans think the U.N. is doing a “poor job,” if that gives you any indication of the esteem in which it is held.
When the polling is broken down by political party, the results aren’t much better.
Click to embiggen.
While addressing climate change is very important to almost half of Democrats, it’s still third-most important. And only 16 percent of Republicans think the issue is important.
When Wired‘s Spencer Ackerman tweeted the study this morning (which is where I saw it), The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg had a good response.
@attackerman Just wait until the oceans rise….
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) September 10, 2012
Perhaps as part of strengthening the United Nations, we could raise its headquarters a few more feet above sea level and add some apartments.
