CNN’s data guru Harry Enten delivered bad news for Democrats: most Americans just don’t care about climate change.
The chief data analyst revealed on the network Wednesday that fewer than half of Americans are concerned about one of Democrats’ signature issues.
“The worry in terms of climate change, simply put, hasn’t shifted; it has not reached the majority of Americans,” Enten said.
Enten cited a Gallup poll that found just 40 percent of Americans worry a “great deal” about “global warming or climate change.”
He added that the new figure is the “same number as we had 25 years ago, back in 2000, and then only just five points higher than we had back in 1989.”
And the number is down six percentage points from 2020, when a record 46 percent of Americans were greatly worried about the climate.
The issue sharply divides parties. Only 14 percent of Republicans believe that it will be a threat in their lifetime, while 78 percent of Democrats believe it will be.
Enten said that polls showed that only 2 percent of Americans feel climate change is the top issue facing the U.S., the same as 2023 and down from 3 percent in 2021.
“It is very, very low on the list of priorities,” he said.
Just 17 percent of Americans said that the effects of climate change will make it harder to stay in their home area, according to a poll from Ipsos KnowledgePanel. That figure is down six percentage points from 2023.
“These numbers are pretty comparable, but they’re pretty comparable on the low side,” he said. “Americans simply put just don’t think it’ll have the type of impact that will really change their lives.”
Enten noted that the data shows “a lot of people will agree with Bill Gates,” who recently revised his view on climate change.
The Microsoft co-founder spent billions on environmental initiatives before saying that the “money designated for climate” is not “being spent on the right things” in a memo he released on Tuesday.
Gates pushed back on people’s “doomsday view” of the issue, emphasizing that “poverty and disease” are the most significant problems facing impoverished people.
Enten, 37, wrapped up the segment, explaining that the distress call sent out by climate activists has seemingly fallen on deaf ears.
“The bottom line is that the climate change message that folks who, of course, believe that climate change is real and is quite worrisome, simply put, has not really worked with the American people,” he said.
Despite President Donald Trump calling climate change a “con job,” the vast scientific consensus is that it’s real and that human activities are the primary cause.
Since the Industrial Revolution began, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached its highest level in 800,000 years.
There’s a glimmer of hope: U.S. per-capita emissions have dropped sharply in recent years, largely due to a decline in coal use, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The post CNN Data Guru Delivers Harsh Truth on Issue Dividing the Aisle appeared first on The Daily Beast.
