If you're old, white and racist, you're more likely to be a climate change denier

Climate change deniers tend to be racist, white and old, according to a study.

Researchers found that American voters with some serious racial resentments were - and this might come as a shock to literally no one - far more likely to question an irrefutable truth like climate change.

Using information from American National Election Studies, researcher Salil Benegal at DePauw University found Republicans with high racial resentment scores were 84 per cent likely to dispute and argue with man-made climate change.

If being more inclined to racial resentment wasn't enough, research conducted by Pew found that climate change deniers tend to also be... Wait, can you guess? That's right, old and white.

People involved in the research were measured on how strongly they agreed with statements such as: 'If blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites".

The data showed white Republicans with high scores for racial resentment were very likely to disagree with a statement that climate change was real opposed to white Republicans with lower scores.

Talking of the research, Benegal says:

I’m not trying to make a claim in the study that race is the single most important or necessarily a massive component of all environmental attitudes.

But it’s a significant thing that we should be looking out for.

The sad, crippling reality is that climate change is real and causes extraordinary damage to our planet.

Whether you do or don't believe in it, climate change is happening regardless and melting ice caps stand as a horrifying reminder.

The use of fossil fuels and other factors is causing untold and sometimes irreversible harm to our pale blue dot of a planet.

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