Three-quarters of Republicans think economy is priority over climate – poll

Survey finds 53% of Americans think addressing climate crisis should be given priority but 72% of Republicans say otherwise

Almost three-quarters of US Republican voters think the economy should be given priority in domestic policy, even at the risk of ignoring the climate crisis, a new poll found.

The survey, from NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist, found that a majority of Americans (53%) think addressing the climate crisis should be given priority.

But 72% of Republicans said otherwise.

June and July were, by many measures, the hottest such months on record. Wildfires are raging across the world, in the US notably in California and Nevada. Smoke from fires in Canada has blotted out the sun on the US east coast this year. Much of the US is threatened by rising seas.

The UN has said the world is “boiling”.

But, the NPR poll showed, the percentage of Republicans who think the economy should be given priority regardless is up 13 points since 2018.

More than half of respondents (56%) said climate change was a major threat. More than two-thirds of Republicans (70%) said it was a minor threat or no threat at all. Among Republicans, 43% said climate change would have no serious impact on their communities.

The Biden administration has claimed to address the climate crisis but it has not been immune to criticism on the issue and with the House held by Republicans, legislative action is near-impossible.

Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the clear top two in polling for the Republican nomination to face Joe Biden next year, have talked down the climate crisis threat.

DeSantis has said he rejects “the politicization of the weather”.

Trump, the clear frontrunner, has called climate change a hoax. As president, he pulled the US out of the Paris climate accords.

The US supreme court, dominated by justices installed by Republicans, has among recent hard-right rulings limited the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Drone footage shows New York City in a blanket of smoke from Canada wildfires – video 

On Thursday, Steve Guest, a conservative commentator and former aide to the Texas senator Ted Cruz, greeted the NPR poll and said: “Republicans are rejecting the climate cult’s antics.”

Repeating Republican culture-war talking points, he added: “Reminder: over the last few years Democrats have tried to make our lives worse under the guise of the climate. They’re going after our gas stoves, our refrigerators, our cars, and our washing machines.”

Guest also gloried in the “meltdown” he said NPR, widely seen as a bastion of liberal views, was experiencing over the poll.

Climate scientists agree that major changes in the global climate are now a reality. Accordingly, they are sounding ever-louder warnings about the gathering crisis.

Last month, James Hansen, the US scientist who in the 1980s sounded the alert over greenhouse gases, told the Guardian “we are damned fools” for not acting with greater urgency.

“There’s a lot more in the pipeline, unless we reduce the greenhouse gas amounts,” said Hansen, 82, adding: “We are headed wittingly into the new reality – we knew it was coming.”

A hazy sky is seen in New York City due to smoke from Canadian wildfires in June. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images