Tag: liberals

Claim: Only Conservatives who Don’t Like Liberals Oppose Climate Action

The claim—that opposition to “climate action” stems primarily from conservatives who personally dislike liberals, rather than substantive disagreements—is a reductive framing often pushed in academic or activist circles. It attempts to pathologize dissent as tribal animosity instead of engaging with policy, economics, science, or risk assessment. Polling and real-world outcomes show a clearer picture: a large, persistent partisan gap exists, but it’s rooted in differing priorities, views on government intervention, economic trade-offs, and skepticism about alarmist framings and specific prescriptions—not mere “dislike.”

From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“… reducing hostility toward the other side (particularly among conservatives) may facilitate cross-ideological climate coalitions. …”

Climate policy isn’t partisan — research suggests more on the right support it than oppose it

Published: April 29, 2026 2.09am AEST
Emily Huddart Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia
Tony Silva Associate Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia

Climate change has become entangled in partisan politics. In Canada, as in other countries, climate concern and support for climate policy are often coded as left-leaning positions. Meanwhile, climate change skepticism or denial is more likely to be espoused by those on the political right.

…

However, we found that having ties to the oil and gas sector did not significantly predict their support for climate policy. Likewise, the degree of conservatism — whether someone identified as centre-right or far-right — didn’t make conservatives less likely to support climate policy either.

…

What mattered most was affective polarization.

Negative feelings toward the left and positive feelings toward the right were by far the strongest predictors of climate policy attitudes, and explained the most variation in support. 

In simple terms, people on the right who felt the most hostility toward the left, and the most warmth toward the right, were more likely to oppose climate policy.

…Read more: https://theconversation.com/climate-policy-isnt-partisan-research-suggests-more-on-the-right-support-it-than-oppose-it-280912

The abstract of the study;

Negative partisanship, positive partisanship, and variation in climate policy attitudes on the political right

Emily Huddart , Tony Silva , Parker Muzzerall , James N Druckman

PNAS Nexus, Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2026, pgag094, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag094

Published:
28 March 2026

Abstract

Conservatives are more likely than liberals to oppose climate policies, resulting in political polarization over climate change. Most research treats this gap as if it reflects two cohesive blocs on opposite sides of an issue. Drawing on original survey data from a probability sample of Canadians (n = 2,503), we find that while liberals are highly uniform in their orientation toward climate policies, conservatives are far more heterogeneous. Further analyses reveal conservatives’ policy positions strongly correlate with their partisan affect—both the extent to which they dislike opposing liberals (negative partisanship) and the extent to which they like fellow conservatives (positive partisanship). These findings highlight the importance of considering variation within, and not just between, political sides. The results additionally suggest that reducing hostility toward the other side (particularly among conservatives) may facilitate cross-ideological climate coalitions.

Read more: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/5/4/pgag094/8553701

The study appears to assume conservatives who oppose climate action are irrational. From the first paragraph of the study – “… Climate mitigation policy in democratic nations requires coordination and compromise between political elites, scientific experts, and citizens. Yet sound public policies are often rejected due to partisan or ideological divides. …”

The determination of whether someone was conservative was based on self identification – “… We use “liberal” and “conservative” to denote respondents’ self-placement on a 0–10 ideological scale (0 = extremely liberal/left, 10 = extremely conservative/right), rather than formal party affiliation …”. This introduces some obvious potential biases.

The unsupported assumption that climate policies are “sound”, and by implication that opposition to climate policies is irrational, is the key mistake which led the study authors to an erroneous conclusion.

When I first heard of the climate crisis I was concerned. It was when I heard the absurd proposed solutions – solar panels and wind turbines – and heard and read claims that nuclear power was too dangerous, that I started digging deeper.

If the world was truly on the brink of a climate catastrophe, how could the risk of a few nuclear meltdowns possibly be worse than a global warming mass extinction event?

It didn’t long to discover the truth of the situation. The reality is claims we are in the midst of a global warming crisis are just as irrational as green opposition to nuclear power. The world is in no danger of overheating – our world has been locked in the Late Cenzoic Ice Age for the last 34 million years, an ice age which shows no sign of ending.

Why would awareness of these facts lead to feelings of hostility towards climate activist politicians?

The ongoing affordability crisis in renewable enthusiast regions like Europe more than demonstrates a world with energy systems dominated by wind and solar would be a world locked in a permanent economic great depression, with industries crushed by the cost of unreliable energy, by having to continuously start and stop the engine of society depending on hour by hour changes in the weather. Not the kind of world most people would want to leave to their kids.

The study authors considered none of this. By blindly assuming climate policy proposals are sound, by inferring respondents who opposed climate action did not have rational reasons for that opposition, without bothering to ask what those reasons are, the study authors confused cause and effect. The study authors leapt to the false conclusion that opposition to climate policy is motivated by emotional prejudice against liberals, without considering the possibility those negative feelings are motivated by reason.

Net Zero Rebellion Growing in Australia

Three state branches of Australia’s main opposition party have voted to dump Net Zero.

A futuristic cityscape at night featuring a large illuminated structure displaying the text 'Net Zero'. In the foreground, a group of people observes the structure amidst a litter-strewn environment.

From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Three state branches of Australia’s main opposition party have voted to dump Net Zero.

Queensland Liberals vote to ditch net zero

Andrew Tillett Foreign affairs, defence correspondent
Aug 22, 2025 – 3.48pm

…

The convention passed a motion calling for a “flexible” approach to emissions reduction and for the federal party to abandon the commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, a policy adopted under Scott Morrison’s prime ministership.

The motion is not binding on the federal party room but follows similar resolutions passed by the West Australian and South Australian branches, putting pressure on Ley amid a sweeping review into the Coalition’s policies.

Home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce are the highest profile members to call for the net zero pledge to be axed, while conservative activist group Advance is lobbying MPs to dump the policy.

…Read more: https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/queensland-libs-vote-to-ditch-net-zero-despite-ley-plea-to-modernise-20250822-p5mp1e

This political shift is encouraging, though it is sad the federal leader of the Liberals is still clinging to the failed politics of yesterday.

Something needs to change. Mining and heavy industry in Australia is in big trouble, thanks to skyrocketing prices.

BlueScope warns soaring energy costs threaten Australian manufacturing as profit drops 90pc

By Kelly Fuller
ABC Illawarra
Topic:Steel
Mon 18 Aug

In short:

BlueScope reports a 90 per cent fall in full-year profit amid soaring energy costs and volatile trade policies.

CEO Mark Vassella says urgent reforms are needed to secure Australia’s manufacturing future.

What’s next?

It has argued its case for reform in a submission to the federal government’s Gas Market Review.

BlueScope has sounded the alarm over Australia’s energy crisis, warning that unsustainably high gas prices are pushing domestic manufacturing to a “tipping point”.

The steelmaker has reported a full year profit of $84 million, a 90 per cent drop from the $721 million reported a year ago.

Speaking after the company’s AGM, BlueScope CEO Mark Vassella said energy costs in Australia are now three to four times higher than in the US and risked undermining the country’s Future Made in Australia vision.

…Read more: 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-18/bluescope-warns-energy-costs-threaten-made-in-australia/105666186

BlueScope goes on to argue for a bigger protected domestic market, to shield producers from international gas prices, but reducing the return on investment for energy producers probably isn’t the best solution to a price and availability crisis.

The reality is, Australia is not short of energy resources – we have some of the most abundant coal and gas fields in the world, not to mention our world class uranium and Thorium deposits. But all of our Uranium is exported, and domestic exploitation of fossil fuel resources has been systematically discouraged for decades, by politicians whose focus has been on issues other than economic development.

Liberals May Be Suffering from Climate Anxiety, but if So, It’s The Media’s Fault

A recent article at the Washington Free Beacon, titled “Great News for Humanity: Depressed Liberals Are Increasingly Suicidal Due to ‘Climate Anxiety,’ Study Finds,” takes a humorous approach (black humor, to be sure) to discussing a study that found liberals are increasingly suffering from climate anxiety and depression, leading the climate-anxious to refrain from having children and even contemplating and, in some cases, committing suicide. The article makes light of it, but it is a widely reported trend.

From ClimateRealism

By Linnea Lueken

A recent article at the Washington Free Beacon, titled “Great News for Humanity: Depressed Liberals Are Increasingly Suicidal Due to ‘Climate Anxiety,’ Study Finds,” takes a humorous approach (black humor, to be sure) to discussing a study that found liberals are increasingly suffering from climate anxiety and depression, leading the climate-anxious to refrain from having children and even contemplating and, in some cases, committing suicide. The article makes light of it, but it is a widely reported trend. Since climate change does not threaten human existence or flourishing, and extreme weather is not worsening, their fears and anxiety are unjustified by the actual state of the climate. Unfortunately, climate alarm has been foisted upon people, especially on children and mentally unwell adults, despite evidence indicating climate change is not anything to be alarmed about.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

“Negative psychological responses related to the observed and anticipated impacts of climate change, such as climate anxiety, eco-anxiety and climate-related guilt have … emerged as a potential risk factor for poor mental health and suicide-related behaviors,” the authors wrote last month in Nature Medicine. “International surveys show that concern about climate change is associated with feelings of despair, hopelessness, anger, frustration and guilt, especially among younger populations.”

The findings of this study, published in Nature, are not unique. Other research has come to similar conclusions: a study conducted by Save the Children found that 70 percent of kids they surveyed struggle with what they dubbed “climate anxiety,” as discussed in this Climate Realism post. Other surveys show similarly sad results.

Each time these results are presented, the media and the researchers involved frame the story as climate change and its impacts are causing fear and anxiety, and the lack of action is causing deep feelings of hopelessness and despair for people worried about climate change. Yet it is the false tales that the media, politicians, and green interest groups are telling about climate change motivating anxiety and mental distress, not the actual conditions of the planet.

For instance, in the media coverage of the Save the Children survey, the UK website Future Net Zero implies that without immediate societal scale action, the present generation of children “stand to inherit a deeply unequal world,” and that their terror is “warranted.”

Likewise, articles from The Hill and The Conversation discussing a study attributing adult PTSD to climate change assert that climate change is impacting people through increased wildfires and other disasters. This is false, the framing of their research is built on falsehoods.

Climate change is not causing worsening weather disasters. Data show that not only are events like wildfires not increasing, but the number of all climate-related deaths are declining because of improvements to infrastructure, healthcare, technology, and yes, better climatic conditions. (See figure below)

The real reason so many impressionable people are depressed and anxious about climate change is because the media and governments relentlessly push and promote false and alarming misinformation and fake news about extreme weather and climate change. It is no wonder that children are afraid, when their teachers are telling them that the world will end in short order unless dramatic global reforms are made. When people don’t see the supposedly climate saving reforms being made, they are left hopeless and despondent. But it is an unnecessary misery – there has never been a safer time period for humans to live in.

The Washington Free Beacon made light of the situation, but it is no laughing matter. Children in particular are being traumatized by adults in their lives over the climate issue. Climate change is not harming mental health, but climate alarmism, built on falsehoods, hysteria, and hyperbole, certainly is.