IT’S NOT ALL PARTISAN POLITICS: THE INTERACTION BETWEEN RELIGION AND EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS IN SHAPING ATTITUDES TOWARD ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE GREATER HOUSTON METROPOLITAN AREA

Abstract

This study investigates the effect that Pope Francis’ 2015 Encyclical Laudato Si had on Catholic beliefs about climate change using a Houston area case study, and presents a model for how religious affiliation and religious worldview impacts those beliefs. I tested three variables gauging respondent views on climate change included in the Rice | Kinder annual survey of Houston area residents for 2015, 2016 and 2018. My results show that Catholicism was not a factor in pro-climate belief formation in 2015, but was in 2018. The data also suggest that Catholics may have increased their risk perceptions of climate change in response to the Encyclical, but did not make a cognitive connection between climate change and prior severe weather events in Houston. Results also showed the Christian Fundamentalism is broadly predictive of climate denialist beliefs, which appear to have strengthened despite the Hurricane Harvey event in 2017. The study found evidence that pro-climate action by religious institutions can moderate the effect of partisanship and political ideology on their adherents’ climate change belief formation.