Thursday, April 29, 2010

Blue and Red States and Climate Change

Source: U.S. EPA, Climate Change Indicators in the United States, April 2010.

The map above shows that there has been more climate change on average in "blue states" - those that vote Democratic than in "red states" - those that vote Republican in the US. The colors are neatly reversed (here they are the traditional blue for conservative and red for left wing). Does this partly explain the divide in US politics on climate change? But there is the same divide in Australia and to some degree in Britain. So I don't know if this has anything to do with it.

1 comment:

  1. US politics tends to divide along urban/rural lines. State level maps are misleading, as many states have a dominant urban center. I.E. New York City(very urban) versus New York State(mostly rural). The population of NYC is the dominant population in New York State.

    People who live in urban areas have one view of human impact on their environment(obviously massive, NYC is all concrete).

    People who live in rural areas have a different view.