Everybody is crazy these days:
Apparently we're down to only 42% of Republicans who think global warming is happening. Note that the question here isn't even about whether humans are responsible for global warming. It's only about the actual fact of warming itself, something that literally no one disputes. But thanks to Fox News this has become more a sign of partisan loyalty than a simple question of looking at thermometers.
On the flip side, 83% of Democrats think oil companies are responsible for climate change. This is laughable. We built highways in the '50s because we the people wanted them. We built gas guzzling cars because we the people wanted them. Oil companies sold us gasoline because we the people wanted it. And absolutely nothing has changed over the past three decades even as it became absolutely clear to everyone—regardless of what oil companies said—that climate change was a real thing. Even when we all knew it, we still insisted on buying gasoline and driving SUVs and overheating our houses.
We the people are responsible for climate change and we the people have consistently refused to do anything about it if it requires even modest changes in our lifestyle. Placing the blame on oil companies is just a way of trying to evade our own responsibility.
Oh look yet another ridiculous take. Oil companies spread FUD and money around to fight any progress. You think things wouldn't be different without that?
Responsibility doesn't have to sum up to 1.00.
If you and I team up to rob a bank we don't each ends up only 50% responsible, we are both completely responsible.
And poll responders certainly aren't going to reliably interpret such a question in some "share of total blame" way.
Over 65% of everyone, Democrats and Republicans included, accept that global warming is "real." I'd guess that even more of us than that 65% are doing the best we can cutting down on consumption of fossil fuels and have been since maybe as long ago as the 70s oil crises. Smaller cars. Lowered thermostats. Our interest is in saving money, at least. Foiled by fossil fuel industries that have pumped billions of their profits into keeping and growing those profits as high as they can. Of course the oil and gas industries are to blame.
We the people inhabit an oligopoly.
If everyone is wrong, then perforce Kevin is wrong about climate change.
I disagree that "We built gas guzzling cars because we the people wanted them." People wanted cars, even big cars, but it was easier, cheaper, and maybe even technologically necessary for the car companies to make gas guzzlers. (I don't know what measures for gas economy were available at the time.) But from what I can find, average gas mileage in the 50s was about 12-13mpg, while even SUVs get much better mileage than that today. Nobody's asking for them to use more gas per se.
It wasn't easier or cheaper and absolutely it wasn't technologically necessary to make gas guzzlers. It was more _profitable_. Companies have a higher profit margin on trucks and SUVs, so that's where they spend their advertising budgets, offering a fantasy of off-roading to sell vehicles for grocery shopping.
CAFE standards got stuck for decades, so car companies put all of their research into higher horsepower. They made sure SUVs were classified as "trucks" not "passenger cars" (lower fuel/emissions standards), never mind that SUVs are now the de facto family car.
We'd love to replace our '96 Ford Ranger -- but nobody makes trucks that size anymore.
"Placing the blame on oil companies is just a way of trying to evade our own responsibility."
Kevin, do you really think that we the people weren't helped along in our irresponsibility by the oil companies? https://theconversation.com/what-big-oil-knew-about-climate-change-in-its-own-words-170642