New poll results revealed that most Americans consider fighting climate change a moral issue that compels them to reduce carbon emissions.
The Reuters/IPSOS poll, answered by 2,287 Americans in February, measures the impact of moral language on climate change. Last month, Pope Francis said that he believed that man was mainly responsible for climate change.
"I don't know if it is all (man's fault) but the majority is, for the most part, it is man who continuously slaps down nature," he said while speaking to the reporters onboard the plane from Sri Lanka to Manila.
"I think man has gone too far," he added.
Climate change deniers criticized the Pope for such statements, as he seemed to align himself with the environmentalists. With such a strong statement, Reuters/IPSOS set out to pulse the public.
66 percent of the respondents seemed to agree with the Pope and believed that it is the moral obligation of world leaders to take measures to reduce carbon emissions. 72 percent, on the other hand, took it directly and felt that they are "personally morally obligated" to do even small things that can help reduce the impact of climate change.
The Pope also convinced 64 percent of the respondents that human activities are responsible for the increasing carbon levels in the environment.
"When climate change is viewed through a moral lens it has broader appeal," Eric Sapp, executive director of the American Values Network, said to Reuters.
The Pope's comment echoes the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which said that 95 percent of global warming was caused by human activities. Such assessment is the highest one to date given by the UN body. It was only 50 percent in 1995, 66 percent in 2001, then jumped to 90 percent in 2007.
The Reuters/IPSOS poll results were adjusted to consider gender, age, education, and ethnicity.
