Racism: Is There Anything It Can’t Do?

This claim is so stupid that I can’t even give it one of our coveted Green Weenie Awards:

Racial Resentment May Be Fueling Climate Denial

After Barack Obama took office, white Americans were less likely to see climate change as a serious problem, according to a recent paper published in the journal Environmental Politics. The study further finds evidence of a link between racial resentment and climate change denial. This is not to suggest that all climate deniers are racists, merely that racial resentment may, in part, be driving climate denial.

I got curious, naturally. Here’s the abstract of the underlying “academic” paper:

The relationship between racial attitudes and public opinion about climate change is examined. Public opinion data from Pew and American National Election Studies surveys are used to show that racial identification and prejudices are increasingly correlated with opinions about climate change during the Obama presidency. Results show that racial identification became a significant predictor of climate change concern following Obama’s election in 2008, and that high levels of racial resentment are strongly correlated with reduced agreement with the scientific consensus on climate change. These results offer evidence for an effect termed the spillover of racialization. This helps further explain why the public remains so polarized on climate change, given the extent to which racial grievances and identities have become entangled with elite communication about climate change and its related policies today.

Question: This article is from yet another Taylor & Francis academic journal. Why does Taylor & Francis publish so much crap?

Chaser: The list of spurious correlations is easy to extend. Like these:

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