Neither source got a rousing endorsement as a solid fount of climate change knowledge, but 17% of those surveyed said they trusted Fox News' information on the subject, while only 11% said they trusted Obama.
Since the vast majority of respondents said they did believe climate change — either manmade or natural — was happening (92%), it seems strange that any would trust Fox News, whose reporters, commentators and guests have repeatedly denied the phenomenon exists at all.
The Union of Concerned Scientists determined that Fox News was "Misleading Most of the Time" on the topic, and among its 2013 segments on climate change, "72 percent included misleading portrayals of the science." That was an improvement over the previous year however, when coverage on climate science was 93% misleading.
Who Do You Trust? Neil, For One.
The group respondents most trusted for climate change information was non-government scientists and educators. At the bottom of the heap were celebrities and entertainers.
Besides the president, the only other individual on the list was astrophysicist and host of the television series Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson — whom 22% of respondents said they would trust on the subject of climate change.
The March poll surveyed over 1,000 adults across the country, 45% of which responded that they had experienced warmer temperatures or unusually severe weather and storms in their state or region.
About 14% percent of adults surveyed thought climate change was natural, and 8% said they didn't believe in climate change or were unsure about it. Which leaves about 77% who think that it's at least partially, if not entirely, due to human behavior.
Capitalism Yes, Spongebob No
Here are just a few of the many choice moments of Fox News' climate change coverage in recent years:
In 2011, Fox News anchor Jon Scott asked Bill Nye if the existence of volcanoes on the moon could cause climate change there, and if so, then couldn't climate change be a natural phenomenon?
Fox Business reporter Elizabeth MacDonald speculated that "Mars wobbles" could be the cause of climate change on Earth.
"There's no consensus on what's causing climate change," MacDonald said, "is it solar flares? Is it the Mars wobbles? Is it the earth's axis tilting in a different way? I mean, that's the issue."
Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy complained in 2011 about an episode of Spongebob Squarepants that worked environmental concerns into its plotline, saying “Clearly, Nickelodeon is pushing a global-warming agenda.”
Fox News guest, and purported "expert" Joe Bastardi claimed that carbon dioxide "literally cannot cause global warming," despite scientific understanding of greenhouse gases going back into the 19th century.
And of course, Bill O'Reilly once compared climate science consensus to religious faith, but insisted it's easier to believe in Jesus than in man-made climate change.
In 2014, Forbes on Fox panelist John Tamny dismissed climate change because it had yet to be affirmed by capitalism.
"If global warming were real, Solyndra would be booming today and ExxonMobil would be going out of business… market signals say [addressing global warming] is a big, economy-sapping waste of time."
