Who's coolest on global warming? Protestants, Catholics—or Nones?

Does religion influence beliefs about global warming?

Who’s the coolest—and who’s the warmest—when it comes to beliefs about global warming?

Let’s start with the warmest religious group. It’s the Nones, those who say they don’t have a religious affiliation. The majority (58%) say, yes, there’s solid evidence of global warming and human activity is the reason.

Next, White mainline Protestants—48% agreed with the Nones about the evidence and cause of global warming.

White non-Latino Catholics took the third spot, with 44% believing in global warming due to human activity.

Fourth place? Black Protestants—only 39% agreed. But this group is also the least likely to outright deny global warming. (It could be occurring, for example, due to natural causes.)

The coolest religious group? White evangelical Protestants. Only 34% say, yes, there’s solid evidence of global warming and people are the cause.

The results reported here come from a Pew Research Center survey in 2008. Beliefs about global warming were already cooling at this time, and the cooling trend accelerated through 2009. (Scroll down to earlier posts this week.)

Are you surprised by these results? Are they consistent with your own beliefs about global warming—whatever your religious affiliation may be?