Why do black and Latino Americans support climate action so much more than whites?

[Judi Lynn]

Why do black and Latino Americans support climate action so much more than whites?
By Chris Mooney and Peyton Craighill December 1


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Hundreds of participants attend a candlelight vigil, a day before the inauguration of Climate Change Conference in Lima, Peru, Sunday, June 30, 2014. Negotiators from more than 190 countries will meet in Lima for two weeks to work on drafts for a global climate deal that is supposed to be adopted next year in Paris. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia) [/font]

This Monday in Lima, Peru, the next stage of international climate negotiations opens, buoyed by recent pledges by the U.S. and China to cap their emissions. The setting certainly doesn't hurt matters -- unlike English speaking countries such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia, the countries of South and Central America have not traditionally nourished much homegrown global warming skepticism.

"I think there’s a good case to be made that what’s happening in Latin America is out in front of any other region of the world," says Lou Leonard, vice president for climate change at the World Wildlife Fund. As examples, Leonard cites Chile's recent passage of a carbon tax, Costa Rica's plans to become carbon neutral, and Mexico's ambitious climate law.

But it's not just Latin America -- Hispanics and Latinos in the U.S. also stand out as among the more green of demographic groups on questions of climate change. Such is the upshot of data from a June Washington Post-ABC News poll, which we re-examined on the eve of the Lima meeting.

In the poll, both Hispanics/Latino Americans and Africans Americans were more likely than U.S. whites to say climate change is a very serious problem confronting the country:

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/01/why-do-black-and-latino-americans-support-climate-action-so-much-more-than-whites/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Simple answer is

these are the souls that work on the front lines and deal with the consequences of lax environmental pollution standards. They see the end results of what really goes on.

[Exultant Democracy]

2. Because only right wing christians buy this bullshit

and they are also very racist so you won't find many people of color in the flocks. They also happen to be almost exclusively republican.

[upaloopa]

3. Why all the generalities about Whites today?

It isn't all Whites it is right wing people who happen to be white.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Did you bother to check the story, glance at the graphs? n/t

[upaloopa]

5. Did you read the title !

[Judi Lynn]

6. The title appears to refer to the stats in the polls, reflecting proportionate positions. n/t

[Kalidurga]

7. Finally an easy question...

Because if you works outside in the heat even a degree higher is going to be noticible especially if you are doing hard labor. Poor people are very much affected by the weather even if they don't work directly outside. And if you are poor but lucky enough to own a home then you really see the effect of the weather on your heating and cooling bills and it's not a small bill at all. Sometimes you have to decide food or A/C and having been there it's not a pleasant thing.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Excellent observation. They are FAR more exposed to the harshness, aren't they?

Weather is one of the many BIG things against which wealthier people are simply insulated, deeply protected.

If they, themselves don't suffer, then it really isn't important, in their eyes. All that matters is their ultimate comfort, so their great minds are free to think about the really important stuff, like removing the minimum wage, and stripping the poor of medical care, and getting more profit from their products, to the greatest expense of the human beings.

[Kalidurga]

9. Being poor I have to have a lot of respect for the weather

if I don't it could mean losing fingers or an ear or whatnot. In the summer it could mean heat stroke and I have been close to having that before, it is not even close to being fun. As far as heat stroke goes the biggest danger IMO is that there is a fine line between almost and an ER visit and death. It doesn't feel nearly as bad as you would think. Lucky for me a very kind lady gave me a bottle of water and probably saved my life since I didn't know how bad off I was.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Talk about great timing! Her appearance in the same place at the right time may have just saved you.

Did you get a little light-headed, spaced-out feeling, or something like that? I can't imagine how that would have been, as you discovered you were probably far worse off than you would have wanted to be.

Your remarks about working outside reminds me of the Republican Congressmen wanting to force US American people to work years longer in order to get the Social Security for which they have been paying all their adult lives.

There is truly a vast difference in Democrats and Republicans.

[Kalidurga]

11. Yeah I think so

I got dizzy and very light headed and spaced out. But, I really didn't feel all that bad not like what you would think if you were in danger of oh say a trip to the emergency room. I didn't feel like that at all just really tired and dizzy, disoriented. So I get how people get a heat stroke. It was my first summer in Tennessee. I waited until fairly late in the evening to go out but still get to the store in time. In Minnesota that usually works, not so much in Tennessee.

Republicans always want people to work harder. They are odious. Hard work is what has caused my to be in the situation I am in and it's not the rainbow and unicorn situation that they promise.