Swiftflop: Polluter-Pushed Scandal Fails to Slow Support for Climate Action

For weeks now, we’ve been hearing about Swifthack — emails stolen from scientists. Despite all available evidence, polluters & science deniers continue to insist the emails mean we should knock off all this clean energy & climate action nonsense and just stay addicted to oil & coal.

But a new poll released by the National Wildlife Federation is revealing that Swifthack has failed to move the needle with voters:

Among those who said they had read or seen something about the stolen emails, 53% said it did not affect their view at all. The remainder was largely split — 26% said it made them less likely to support the U.S. taking action to reduce global warming while 20% said it made them more likely to support action.

Even a harshly framed attack about the emails failed to influence voters in any significant way … 63% still say they believe global warming is happening.

Other key poll results:

• 82% of voters (and 80% of Independents) support the U.S. government “increasing investment in clean energy sources.”

• 67% of voters (and 67% of Independents) support the U.S. government “limiting carbon pollution and other gases that may cause global warming.”

• 66% of voters (and 63% of Independents) support “signing an international treaty to commit to addressing global warming – as long as countries like China and India do as well.”

Read the full poll results (PDF) in the NWF Newsroom.