A new poll released today showed that there is a broad base of support among faith groups for action on the pressing problem of climate change.

Here are a couple of highlights:

More than 6-in-10 (61%) believe dealing with climate change now will create new jobs and help avoid more serious economic problems in the future. Majorities of every religious group agree.

Policies that address climate change by aiding adaptation to new conditions and building resilience receive strong support among all groups surveyed. Approximately three-quarters of the general public (74%), white evangelicals (79%) and Catholics (72%) favor helping the world’s poorest people adapt to food and water shortages caused by rising global temperatures. Nearly 9-in-10 of the general public (88%), white evangelicals (89%) and Catholics (87%) support helping communities prepare for the impacts of increasingly severe natural disasters. Nearly 9-in-10 of the general public, including similar numbers of evangelicals and Catholics, also favor investing in green technology like wind turbines, solar panels, and fuel cells.

Read the full report from Faith in Public life here.

On a related note, the Center for American Progress recently put out an interesting new report about how faith groups have been working to combat global warming.

I wonder what Rep. John Shimkus has to say about this?

“The world is falling!”  seems to be the only thing coming out of conservative congresspeople from both parties and polluting industries these days. Whether it’s about expanding student loan programs by making the whole process more efficient or re-energizing our economy with investments in clean energy jobs, the message of the opposition is always the same: progressive priorities will bankrubt the system and hurt common people. Behind this smokescreen of fear tactics, most voters don’t know that while these legislators are playing chicken little with their costituent’s minds, they are lining their pockets with donations from the same industries targeted by progressive reforms. 

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman had a great opinion piece in yesterday’s New York Times calling out conservative lies about the impacts of clean economy legislation on everyday Americans.

 ”Just as denials that climate change is happening are junk science, predictions of economic disaster if we try to do anything about climate change are junk economics… 

If emission permits were auctioned off — as they should be — the revenue thus raised could be used to give consumers rebates or reduce other taxes, partially offsetting the higher prices. But the offset wouldn’t be complete. Consumers would end up poorer than they would have been without a climate-change policy.”

Krugman isn’t the only one not buying the corporate tools. According to two recent polls, one conducted by ABC News/Washington Post and one by NBC News/Wall Street Journal, the majority of americans (up to 75% of respondents to the ABC/WP one) want President Obama to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of whether it will come at a cost. 

The business sector is waking up as well and recognizing that coal power plants might not be a good investment after all. LS Power just suspended its third coal project this year due to uncertainty about the economic viability of burning coal in the future. This is a huge victory for the climate movement and for the communities that would have been subject to the averse health impacts of living next to a coal burning power plant. 

While it’s great that the public, economists, and businesses are turning their backs on our dirty past, many of our politicians are still too busy counting their carbon dollars. Check out this grassroots campaign to get Democrats to forgo funding from PACs and call your representatives to tell them to support a climate bill that makes polluters pay.