It's the opinion of Donald Trump that global climate change is not happening -- that it's just a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to hurt American industry. Congressional Republicans are only slightly better. While some will finally admit it is happening, they refuse to admit that it is being caused by human activity (overuse and misuse of fossil fuels).
That's not what a majority of the public thinks though. About 54% of the public believes climate change is happening and is caused by human activity, while only 30% don't believe that -- a gap of 24 points. And they believe it is already causing damage to the United States by 59% to 18% -- a gap of 41 points.
This is not something the GOP is going to want to campaign on -- especially if disasters like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma continue to happen next year at this time.
The charts above contain information in a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between September 3rd and 5th of a random national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,309 registered voters), with a margin of error of 3 points.
