‘Policy problem from hell’ takes a back seat in midterm elections

Aside from liberal Democrats, voters rank climate change lower than other concerns.

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(Bill Sternberg is a veteran Washington journalist and former editorial page editor of USA Today.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — Amid an unceasing barrage of extreme weather events in the United States and abroad, and increasingly dire warnings about the impact of global warming, you’d think climate change would be near the top of most voters’ minds as the midterm elections approach next week.

You’d be wrong.

Among registered voters, global warming ranked 24th in importance out of 29 issues listed in an April report by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Other surveys, conducted more recently, similarly show climate change trailing well behind such dinner-table concerns as the economy, inflation and health care.

All the polls show a stark, almost unbelievable, partisan divide over the importance of climate change.