CLIMATE SENTIMENTS SHIFTING

Are The Pope And Faith Communities Changing The Climate Change Conversation?

Marshall Shepherd, November 16, 2015 (Forbes)

“…[A] unique study design of within-subject surveys of a nationally representative sample of American adults conducted in the Spring, prior to the release of the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’, and again in the Fall, after the Pope’s visit to the United States [shows more Americans and more American Catholics are worried about global warming than six months ago and more believe it will have significant impacts on human beings. Some of these changes in Americans’ and American Catholics’ views can be attributed to the Pope’s teachings, as 17 percent of Americans and 35 percent of Catholics say his position on global warming influenced their own views of the issue]…[I]t is important to caution that [The Francis Effect: How Pope Francis Changed The Conversation About Global Warming ] has not been peer reviewed…We will indeed be further analyzing the data for publication in academic journals, and at least one dissertation is already planned. The Pope’s efforts on behalf of the climate created a wonderful natural experiment…” click here for more

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