Description: During the past two decades environmental issues and especially climate change have become very divisive issues in U.S. politics, both among political elites and lay persons. The presentation will track these developments with longitudinal data, paying special attention to trends in partisan polarization over climate change using Gallup Poll data from 1997 to 2016. The results will be framed in terms of recent political science research on partisan polarization, leading to pessimistic projections about the likelihood of "de-polarizing" climate change and environmental protection more generally in the foreseeable future.

Bio: Riley E. Dunlap is Regents Professor and Laurence L. and Georgia Ina Dresser Professor in the Department of Sociology at Oklahoma State University. One of the founders of environmental sociology, Dunlap’s recent work has focused heavily on climate change, particularly public perceptions, political polarization, and organized denial. He chaired the American Sociological Association’s Task Force on Sociology and Global Climate Change, and is senior editor of the resulting volume Climate Change and Society: Sociological Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 2015). Dunlap is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Psychological Association, and a member of the Sociological Research Association. Professor Dunlap has received a number of awards for his scholarly work, most recently the William R. Freudenburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences in 2012.

http://fordschool.umich.edu/events/2016/partisan-polarization-environmental-protection-and-climate-change