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Washington, Apr 19 (ANI): Democrats and Republicans in the US are divided over the issue of global warming despite the growing scientific consensus that global warming is real, a study led by a Michigan State University researcher has claimed.

Sociologist Aaron M. McCright has said the gap between Democrats and Republicans who believe global warming is happening, increased 30 percent between 2001 and 2010, a “depressing” trend that is essentially keeping meaningful national energy policies from being considered.

“Instead of a public debate about different policies to deal with global warming, a significant percentage of the American public is still debating the science. As a result, we’re failing to significantly address one of the most serious problems of our time,” McCright, MSU associate professor and primary investigator on the study, said in the research journal ‘Sociological Quarterly’.

McCright and Riley E. Dunlap of Oklahoma State University analysed 10 years of data from Gallup’s environmental poll, making the study the first of its kind to use multiple years of data.

The MSU-led study has revealed that people on the right of the political spectrum increasingly deny the existence of global warming, while people on the left generally believe in global warming more now than they did 10 years ago.

About 49 percent Republicans have said in the 2001 Gallup survey that they believe the effects of global warming have already begun, a number that dropped to 29 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage of Democrats who believe global warming has already begun increased from about 60 in 2001 to 70 in 2010. Overall, the gap between these “believers” in the two parties increased from 11 percent in 2001 to 41 percent in 2010, the study said.

A similar trend held for people who identify as either conservative or liberal. When it came to believing that global warming has already begun, the gap between conservatives and liberals increased from about 18 percent in 2001 to 44 percent in 2010, it added.

McCright, however, sad that this political polarization on climate change would likely disappear

in the near future.

“Many Republican Party leaders have moved further to the right since the 2008 presidential election. We’ve also seen attacks on climate science by Tea Party activists. It seems like climate change denial has become something of a litmus test for Republican candidates,” he said.

“This continued elite polarization on climate change means that the general public will likely remain politically divided on climate change for a while,” McCright added. (ANI)