Most Californians Link Climate Change, Drought; Split is Partisan

Leftists are drunk with climate change hysteria.

It's a psychotic break with reality.

At the San Francisco Chronicle:

SACRAMENTO — Nearly two-thirds of Californians say global warming is contributing to the state’s drought, but there’s a distinct partisan divide, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Seventy-eight percent of Democrats said global warming has contributed to the four-year drought, while 62 percent of Republicans said it has not, according to the poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Overall, 64 percent of respondents see a link between a changing world climate and a dried-up California, the survey said.

The blue-red divide doesn’t apply just to the drought, the poll found. Asked when the effects of global warming will become apparent, nearly a third of Republicans said never. Just 3 percent of Democrats and 7 percent of independents agreed.

“There has been a very strong partisan divide among several of the last surveys (on global warming), and that continues this year,” said Mark Baldassare, president of PPIC. “That is driven by the national discussion around climate change.”

The divide was also apparent among Californians who say it’s very important for the state to pass regulations and invest in efforts to combat the effects of global warming, such as flooding and wildfires. Statewide, 61 percent of those surveyed said it was very important, but only a minority of Republicans thought so. Among Democrats, the total was 77 percent.

When it comes to drought-fighting measures that hit closer to home, the survey found strong support: More than four-fifths of respondents said Gov. Jerry Brown’s order for a 25 percent cut in statewide water usage was just right or not tough enough.

On the other hand, people are a bit fuzzy on the details of what they’re supposed to do. The state’s order requires communities to cut their 2013 water usage by anywhere from 4 to 36 percent, but nearly two-thirds of respondents told pollsters they didn’t know how much their area was being asked to save.

“That struck me as a big number,” Baldassare said. “If you are asking people to be part of the solution, they need to know what you are asking of them. Many Californians don’t know.”