Poll: Democrats say climate change a bigger threat than ISIS
New data from the Pew Research Center indicates that self-identified Democrats are more concerned about global climate change than the threat posed by ISIS, the brutal terrorist army that has swept through much of Iraq and Syria in recent months. While 68 percent of Democrats say they view climate change as a "major threat" to the United States, 65 percent feel the same way about ISIS.
For Republicans, the numbers are switched and the gap vastly larger: 78 percent are worried about ISIS, and only a quarter are bothered by the prospect of global climate change.
The same poll found an across-the-board preference for ranking hazards ranging from infectious disease to North Korean nuclear capabilities as "major threats" rather than "minor threats." This was coupled with a rising cross-partisan desire to see the U.S. more involved internationally, suggesting that a climate of fear may be increasing desire for an interventionist foreign policy.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
The Week Unwrapped: Should dogs go vegan?
Podcast Plus, is the US finally closing Guantanamo? And are public toilets an endangered species?
By The Week UK Published
-
Quiz of The Week: 4 - 10 January
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures A kiss of faith, a burning house, and more
By Anahi Valenzuela, The Week US Published
-
Biden cancels Italy trip as raging LA fires spread
Speed Read The majority of the fires remain 0% contained
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Fast-spreading Los Angeles wildfires spark panic
Speed Read About 30,000 people were under an evacuation order as the inferno spread
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Hundreds feared dead in French Mayotte cyclone
Speed Read Cyclone Chido slammed into Mayotte, a French territory in the Indian Ocean
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Thirteen missing after Red Sea tourist boat sinks
Speed Read The vessel sank near the Egyptian coastal town of Marsa Alam
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Global plastics summit starts as COP29 ends
Speed Read Negotiators gathering in South Korea seek an end to the world's plastic pollution crisis, though Trump's election may muddle the deal
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Biden visits Amazon, says climate legacy irreversible
Speed Read Nobody can reverse America's 'clean energy revolution,' said the president, despite the incoming Trump administration's promises to dismantle climate policies
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
At least 95 dead in Spain flash floods
Speed Read Torrential rainfall caused the country's worst flooding since 1996
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Cuba roiled by island-wide blackouts, Hurricane Oscar
Speed Read The country's power grid collapsed for the fourth time in just two days
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published