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Thursday, August 11, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

More Republicans are unsure 
of climate change, study shows

Municipal tobacco 
law unsettles small 
local business owners 

SINDUJA KILARU/Daily

Tobacco stores in Ann Arbor will be affected by new ordinance 

RESEARCH

Researchers believe 

party affiliation 
and rise of Trump 
influenced trend

By MADELEINE GERSON

Daily Staff Reporter

According to a spring 2016 report 

released earlier this month by the 
National Survey on Energy and 
Environment, 
fewer 
Americans 

doubt the occurrence of global 
warming. 
However, 
a 
recent 

collaborative 
study 
conducted 

by professors at the University 
of Michigan’s Ford School of 
Public Policy and the Muhlenberg 
College Institute of Public Opinion 
concluded that the number of 
unsure Republicans is at its highest 
since the inception of NSEE in 2008.

Climate change, which includes 

global warming, is a change in 

weather distributions over a long 
period of time. Global warming 
specifically refers to the rise in 
Earth’s temperature caused by 
human activities that produce 
greenhouse gases, and is a topic 
of energy policy discussion in the 
upcoming election.

The research study surveyed 

768 random adult residents across 
the nation. The participants were 
asked a number of questions over 
the phone about their beliefs 
concerning climate change, and 
their responses were analyzed for 
a variety of factors including age, 
race, education and income.

The study found that the number 

of Americans who believe there is no 
solid evidence for global warming 
was at an all-time low of 15 percent 
compared to last year’s 24 percent, 
and the number of people unsure 
about the case of global warming’s 
existence rose to 19 percent from 13 
percent — a shift from denying its 
existence to begin with.

Sarah Mills, an author of the 

study and postdoctoral fellow at 
the Ford Center for Local, State, 
and Urban Policy, said the high 
temperatures 
last 
year 
most 

definitely affected the conclusions 
of the survey.

“This past winter was one of the 

warmest winters on record,” Mills 
said. “We have seen record heat at 
the beginning of 2016. There doesn’t 
seem to be much else in the climate 
world that would account for this 
growing category of people being 
unsure about climate.”

Mills 
said 
political 
party 

affiliation had a large effect on th 
public’s belief in global warming. 
Among Republicans, 26 percent 
were unsure about global warming’s 
existence.

The 
researchers 
speculate 

the rise in Republicans unsure 
about global warming — instead 
of completely denying its reality 
— could be accredited to the 
Local ordinance 
to raise age of 
purchase to 21

By BRIAN KUANG and 

ISHI MORI

Daily Summer News Editor and 

Daily Staff Reporter

The recently approved city 

ordinance raising the minimum 
age of tobacco purchase to 21 
in Ann Arbor has been met 
with a cold reception from 
local business owners directly 
impacted by the law.

At last week’s City Council 

meeting, about a dozen public 
health 
officials 
representing 

local hospitals and national 
advocacy 
groups 
— 
who 

worked with Councilmember 
Julie Grand (D– Ward 3) in 
spearheading the law — testified 
on 
behalf 
of 
the 
expected 

public health benefits of the 
restriction.

Following 
them, 
Chris 

Rosenthal, owner of Tobacco 
Rose Cigars, located on East 
Stadium Boulevard, took the 
podium to oppose the bill before 
the council decisively voted 9-2 
in its favor.

“I’m out-credentialed, I’m out-

dressed, I’m out-documented, 
I’m out-numbered,” Rosenthal 

said, referring to the preceding 
speakers in the public hearing. 
“But I own a small business.”

In an interview with the 

Daily, Rosenthal, who primarily 
sells premium cigars, said that 
even though he doesn’t disagree 
with the health risks posed by 
smoking, he disagrees with the 
manner in which City Council 
pushed the bill despite state 
statutes barring municipalities 
from 
independently 
setting 

restrictions on tobacco sales.

“More 
than 
one 
member 

of Council said on the record 
that they knew it was out 
of their authority to change 
this 
ordinance,” 
Rosenthal 

said, 
implicitly 
referring 

to 
Councilmembers 
Chuck 

Warpehoski (D–Ward 5), Sabra 
Briere (D–Ward 1) and Graydon 
Krapohl (D–Ward 4). “And I 
get 
them 
being 
progressive 

and wanting change, but they 
blatantly broke their oath, and 
it’s disheartening; they didn’t 
even put that on the ballot to let 
the public vote on it.”

Rosenthal added that most of 

his opposition to the restriction 
is based on principle, as younger 
consumers do not buy as many 
high-end cigars. Nonetheless, 
he drew issue with what he 
views as the arbitrariness of the 
law; it would still be legal for 

See TOBACCO, Page 9

See CLIMATE, Page 8

