Pirate's Cove

A scorching hot take linking two of the Progressives favorite things, raaaaacism and ‘climate change’

Racial resentment may be fueling climate denial, study finds

What began as a way of trolling Prius drivers became a signature protest against America’s first black president — rolling coal. Drivers spend hundreds or thousands of dollars retrofitting their trucks so they can blanket cyclists, motorists, and pedestrians with thick, black clouds of exhaust.

“I run into a lot of people that really don’t like Obama at all,” one seller of coal-rolling equipment told Slate. “If he’s into the environment, if he’s into this or that, we’re not. I hear a lot of that.” In some instances, the practice has taken on an explicitly racial tone, as drivers publish videos of themselves rolling coal on Black Lives Matter protesters.

Why would anyone spend so much money to do something so hostile and self-defeating? New research may offer some insight.

Before going on, has anyone ever heard of this happening? One would have thought this would have made the national news at some point

After Barack Obama took office, white Americans were less likely to see climate change as a serious problem, according to a recent peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Environmental Politics. The study further finds evidence of a link between racial resentment and climate change denial. This is not to suggest that all climate deniers are racists, merely that racial resentment may, in part, be driving climate denial. (big snip)

Benegal’s study links these two fields of research by asking if, and to what extent, racial resentment has fueled climate change denial. He began by examining the views of black and white Americans on climate change before and during Obama’s presidency, comparing Pew surveys taken between 2006 and 2008 with surveys taken between 2009 and 2014. Obama, who named climate change a top priority on the campaign trail, tried and failed to pass cap and trade legislation in 2009.

Before the 2008 election, Benegal said, there was no significant difference between white and black Americans on climate change, when controlling for partisanship, ideology, education, church attendance, and employment. In the years after Obama took office, the views of black Americans stayed roughly the same. White Americans, however, were 18 percent less likely to see climate change as a very serious problem.

Well, obviously, that means it might possibly maybe we feel that the difference is all raaaaacism. Hey, could it be that it’s blacks who are the racists, sticking with their position because of their Obama support, not wanting to take the position of white Americans, despite all the evidence against the climate change scam? See? People don’t like it when the narrative goes the other way.

It’s usually the case that the Cult of Climastrology is subsuming other issues, real or fake. In this case, it looks more like racial grievance mongers are using the climate change scam for their own purposes

Benegal worries that, as some have suggested, the political parties are sorting according to feelings of about race. “Maybe we need to look at race or racial resentment much more critically,” he said. “The concern for me is that if climate change as an issue has become more racialized… it may make it harder to actually persuade individuals to shift their views.”

Read: Racial Resentment Might Maybe Possibly Be Fueling Climate Denial Or Something »