Iced Tea

The vast majority of Tea Party supporters do not believe global warming is an environmental problem that’s having an effect now. According to a New York Times/CBS Poll conducted in October, only 14 percent of them think that, compared to nearly half of the general public. Less than half of Tea Party supporters believe global warming will have serious effects in the future, and 8 percent of them do not believe in global warming at all.

Compare that with a Rasmussen poll of 1,000 “likely voters” in the general public conducted Oct. 4 and 5. Fifty-nine percent of them considered global warming a serious issue, with 42 percent saying it was caused by planetary trends and 39 percent believing it is man-made. Thirty-seven percent were not very concerned about global warming.

In Nevada, Tea Party-supported Senate candidate Sharron Angle has said she does not believe in man-made global warming. She told the New York Times in May, “I’m a clean-air proponent. I don’t, however, buy into the whole … man-caused global warming, man-caused climate change mantra of the left. I believe that there’s not sound science to back that up.”