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Collection: Word on the Street

How Americans Really Feel About Taxes

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america, trucks, cars, democracy, patriotism

Press, pundits, and elected officials—Left and Right—drum a message into our heads: “Americans hate taxes.” Look! I’ve just done it again! (Note to self: Refuting and repeating a negative frame simply serves to reinforce the frame.)

But Vanessa Williamson, fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and author of the book Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes, says that the notion that Americans hate taxes “has become a truism without the benefit of being true.”

Williamson’s research digs into a pervasive but largely buried alternative to the conventional wisdom:

Pollsters have been asking Americans whether “it is every American’s civic duty to pay their fair share of taxes.” Every year, about nine in 10 Americans agree with that sentiment. In 2009, 3 percent of respondents disagreed. That level of accord is very rare. To give you a point of reference: About 6 percent of Americans think the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked. On the civic responsibility of taxpaying, Americans are about as close to consensus as they ever get.

So how do Americans feel? Williamson says that “paying your fair share of taxes is a norm that a vast majority of Americans hold dear.” When you ask Americans about taxes (and she has been asking—for nearly a decade), their thoughts are anything but small. “They talk about what their country means to them,” she says, “and about the world they hope to leave for their children and grandchildren.” For better and for worse, people connect taxes to their core values and sense of community identity—and of right and wrong.

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Washingtonians Favor Action to Ditch Fossil Fuels and Go Clean

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Legislation that would halt the era of polluting for free in Washington State (SB 6203)—a carbon tax—was ushered to the Ways and Means Committee last week. The carbon tax is part of a suite of climate and energy policies, among them Senate Bill 6253, requiring utilities to shift to power from carbon-free sources. The idea … Read more

Poll: African-Americans Ahead on Climate Change

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It’s the same old song and dance. Whenever and wherever a climate policy solution is proposed, the fossil fuel industry and its allies and front groups target people of color and low-income families with scary messages about energy costs. They have been singing the same tune to rural communities and working class families in Washington and … Read more

Latino Voters, Environmentalists at Heart

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Editor’s note July 2016: It’s Latino Conservation Week, and to celebrate, we’re re-posting this favorite article from last year. Did you know that fully 74 percent of Latino Americans said setting national standards to prevent global warming and climate change is extremely important to them? Impressive numbers. Read on for more… Most American Latinos might not fit the typical … Read more

How Science Denial Derails Scientists

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Mostly, I recommend bypassing the climate science “debate” altogether. There’s no actual debate so even debunking it gives it undeserved credence. But that’s just it: doubt and denial are more than just states of mind; their perpetuation is strategic. An eye dropper of doubt has proven more potent in stalling action on climate change than an ocean of ironclad scientific warnings.

Sometimes it’s good to call attention to this kind of strategy in order to undercut its power. Because we do wind up wasting lots of time and energy on science denial.

In my line of work, there’s even an obsession with measuring it. I’m talking about polling voters’ “belief” in climate change. John Oliver described this practice best:

“It doesn’t matter! You don’t need people’s opinions on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking if 15 is bigger than 5, or ‘do owls exist?’, or ‘are there hats?’…The only accurate way to report that 1 in 4 Americans are skeptical of global warming is to say that a poll finds that 1 in 4 Americans are wrong about something.”

But we’re all vulnerable to the drumbeat. Now, a new study shows that climate change denial is taking a toll on scientists—and science. And really, instead of climate denial we should always call it what it really is: science denial.

Here are at least three ways denial derails scientists:

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We’re Ready to Cut Climate Pollution

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American Flag

Results hot off the presses from a Wall Street Journal / NBC poll show promising climate attitudes among American voters, most notably, solid support for the new Environmental Protection Agency proposal to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

At a moment when President Obama’s approval numbers continue to “tank,” the WSJ called his climate and energy policy “a rare bright spot.” Indeed! Here are some top takeaways:

  • More than six in 10 of the 1,000 US respondents said action is needed against climate change
  • 67 percent say they strongly (37 percent) or somewhat (30 percent) support Obama’s rules to set limits on power plant emissions and just 29 percent say they oppose
  • 57 percent said they would favor a proposal to curb greenhouse gas emissions even if it meant higher electricity bills (That figure is up 9 percentage points since October 2009 and the highest since WSJ/NBC began asking the question.)

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The Kids Are Alright

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A few months back, Benenson Strategy Group and GS Strategy Group (a Democratic and a Republican firm working together) conducted a survey of young Americans for the League of Conservation Voters, to gauge attitudes about climate change, understanding of the problem, and readiness for leadership and policy solutions.

The finding: Young voters of both parties want to see action on climate change and will support leaders willing to take steps to address that threat.

Yep. A hefty majority of voters 18 to 35 understand the threat of climate change and already see the harmful effects of it, or expect to in their lifetime (65 percent). A full two-thirds say climate change needs to be addressed, while just 27 percent say climate change is a natural event that humans can’t affect, and a meager 3 percent deny it’s happening.

These numbers are slightly stronger, but not wildly different from the general population (i.e. surveys that include all us old people), though the share who flat out deny  can be as high as a quarter in some general population polls.

What’s most encouraging is young Americans’ eagerness for leadership and rejection of the denial game.

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Are Americans Talking about Global Warming?

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All I can say is, my Facebook friends are not behaving like average Americans. My closest circles of “real world” friends and family really aren’t either. I already knew that! I mean, every other post I see on social media is about climate change and the people I choose to hang out with are the types who talk about big, serious issues fairly often too. I knew we were not the norm. But these new public opinion numbers from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication are still surprising—and sobering.

Americans are talking about climate change even less than I’d thought:

  • Only one in three Americans say they discuss global warming at least occasionally with friends or family, up 4 percentage points since September 2012, but down 8 points since November 2008. A mere 4 percent report talking about it “often” and twenty-eight percent say they talk about it “occasionally.” That means 67 percent talk about climate “rarely” or “never.”
  • Few Americans (less than 8 percent) communicated publicly about global warming in the past 12 months (e.g., online or in the media). In fact, only 7 percent say they shared information about global warming on Facebook or Twitter. Only 18 percent of “the Alarmed” (the most concerned of Yale’s Six Americas population segments) say they’ve posted about global warming on Facebook or Twitter.

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Asian Americans’ Green Values

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As populations grow and political preferences shift, Asian Americans are emerging as an increasingly powerful voting bloc. And politicos, NGOs, and pollsters alike are just beginning to pay more attention. So, while polling data are still fairly spotty, evidence is mounting that most Asian Americans hold particularly strong green values.

In fact, research indicates Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rank much higher on their commitment and identification with environmentalism than the rest of the US population.

This is significant. Asian Americans represent just over 5 percent of the total population, but according to the US Census, the Asian American population grew by 46 percent between 2000 and 2010—faster than any other racial or ethnic group. And in California, Asian Americans make up 15 percent of the state’s resident population (almost three times the size of the state’s African-American population). Asian Americans constitute a majority of the population in Hawaii (57 percent), and are also a significant portion of the state populations in New Jersey (9 percent), Washington (9 percent), New York (8 percent), and Virginia (7 percent). Plus, Asian Americans, who voted in record numbers in 2008, turned out in even higher numbers in 2012.

What’s also significant is that Asian Americans have been shifting to the political left more generally.

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