Republicans tend to distrust scientists when it comes to global warming

Some really fascinating polling data

"To see just how remarkable the Figure 3 data is, compare it to Figure 1. In 1997, some 52% of Dems said the effects of global warming have already begun and 52% said most scientists believe global warming is occurring. In 2008, now 76% say warming had begun and 75% say most scientists believe warming is occurring. Makes sense. Dems believe most scientists.

As for Republicans, in 1997 some 42% said warming had begun and 48% said most scientists believe warming is occurring — a modest 6 point differential. By 2008, the percentage of Republicans saying the effects of global warming have already begun had dropped to a mere 42% (an amazing stat in its own right given the painfully obvious evidence to the contrary). But the percentage saying most scientists believe global warming is occurring had risen to 54% — a stunning 12 point differential.

In short, a significant and growing number of Republicans — one in eight as of 2008 — simply don’t believe what they know most scientists believe."

This coincides with a recent study that concluded Republicans are more likely to believe misinformation is true after they're shown proof that it's false.

Really weird stuff.

Actually it's 12% of Republicans who think that both

a) Most scientists believe global warming is occurring, and

b) The effects of global warming have not begun

It's now 58% of Republicans who think we're not feeling any effects of global warming.  Which is really quite mind-boggling.  I mean, if you want to argue as to what's causing global warming, that's one thing.  But to claim we're not experiencing any global warming effects when the global temperature has increased 0.5°C in the past 30 years, the Arctic set a new record melt last year and almost matched it this year, sea levels are rising, glaciers are vanishing, and so on and so forth...that's pretty hard to explain.

The only explanation I can think of is that these 58% of Republicans just associate anything related to global warming with 'hoax', 'scam', etc.  So even though we're clearly experiencing the effects of global warming (again, regardless of cause), when they hear the words 'global warming' in the question, they automatically associate 'hoax', 'scam', etc. and answer negative.

As for the 12% who think scientists believe global warming is occurring and yet don't think so themselves, that illustrates a clear distrust of scientists which I find hard to comprehend.  Probably the result of listening to too much (any) Rush Limbaugh.

And again there's this lack of differentiation - I don't think there are any scientists who think global warming isn't happening.  There are a (very) few who disagree about what's causing it, and some debate as to how bad the consequences will be, but no debate that the planet is warming.  Yet 46% of Republicans think scientists think otherwise.

Again I can only guess they're associating 'global warming' with 'hoax', 'scam', etc. and ignoring the details and specifics of the questions.  Which to me indicates a pretty brainwashed mindset.

That might be playing a role.  Still, there's been such an increase in Republican denial according to these polls that I don't think just thinning numbers can account for it.

Yeah I'm registered Green Party so I get left out of the statistics too.  I've only seen Democrats vs. Republicans in these kinds of polls.