This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
Religious beliefs may play an important role in whether someone believes humans are warming the planet by burning fossil fuels, new polls found. The findings come as Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, released his latest papal letter, rebuking the “irresponsible lifestyle” of Westerners and chastising those who try to delay efforts to address the climate crisis or deny its very existence.
“Despite all attempts to deny, conceal, gloss over or relativize the issue, the signs of climate change are here and increasingly evident,” Francis wrote in his exhortation released Wednesday, urging world leaders to do far more to address global warming ahead of the COP28 climate talks next month. “No one can ignore the fact that in recent years we have witnessed extreme weather phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought and other cries of protest.”
But despite the pope’s strong words, the second time he has in writing sought to raise awareness about climate change, a pair of surveys released over the last two weeks found that people who strongly identify with their religious beliefs tend to dismiss the overwhelming scientific consensus that the planet is warming at an unprecedented rate and humans are behind it.
A Pew Research Center survey, released last week, found that just 44 percent of American Catholics believe in human-caused climate change, while 29 percent believe the warming climate is due to “natural patterns” and 13 percent don’t believe Earth is warming at all. A second survey, released Wednesday by the Public Religion Research Institute, found that the higher someone valued their religious beliefs, the less likely they were to believe that Earth is warming because of human activity.
Among Americans who said…
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