Climate Change in the American Mind: April 2019

 

Executive Summary

• About seven in ten Americans (69%) think global warming is happening. Only about one in six Americans (16%) think global warming is not happening. Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it isn’t by more than a 4 to 1 ratio.
• Many Americans are certain that global warming is happening; 46% are “extremely” or “very” sure it is happening. By contrast, far fewer (8%) are “extremely” or “very sure” global warming is not happening.
• A majority of Americans (55%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. By contrast, only about one in three (32%) think it is due mostly to natural changes in the environment.
• More than half of Americans (53%) understand that most scientists think global warming is happening. However, only about one in six (17%) understand how strong the level of consensus among scientists is (i.e., that more than 90% of climate scientists think human-caused global warming is happening).
• About six in ten Americans (62%) say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. More than one in five (23%) are “very worried” about it.
• Nearly four in ten Americans (38%) say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming.
• About four in ten Americans (38%) think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming “right now.”
• More than four in ten Americans (44%) think they will be harmed by global warming, while more think their family (48%), and/or people in their community (48%) will be harmed. More than half of Americans think global warming will harm people in the U.S. (59%), people in developing countries (64%), the world’s poor (64%), future generations of people (69%), and/or plant and animal species (71%).
• More than six in ten Americans (64%) say the issue of global warming is either “extremely,” “very,” or “somewhat” important to them personally, while about one in three (36%) say it is either “not too” or “not at all” personally important.
• About six in ten Americans (63%) say they “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friends, while 37% say they do so “occasionally” or “often”.
• About half of Americans (51%) say they hear about global warming in the media at least once a month. Fewer (23%) say they hear people they know talking about global warming at least once a month.
• Fewer than half of Americans perceive a social norm in which their friends and family expect them to take action on global warming. Forty-five percent think it is at least moderately important to their family and friends that they take action (an injunctive norm), and about four in ten (41%) say their family and friends make at least a moderate effort to reduce global warming (a descriptive norm).
• About half of Americans (54%) say they have thought about global warming more than “a little.”
• Very few Americans (12%) think it is too late to do anything about global warming, and only four in ten (40%) think the actions of a single individual won’t make any difference in global warming. About half of Americans (49%) think new technologies can solve global warming without individuals having to make big changes in their lives.
• Majorities of Americans think of global warming as an environmental (75%), scientific (69%), severe weather (64%), agricultural (63%), health (58%), political (57%), economic (54%) and/or humanitarian (51%) issue. Fewer think it is a moral (38%), poverty (29%), national security (27%), social justice (24%), and/or religious issue (9%).
• Six in ten Americans (60%) think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, and about three in ten think weather is being affected “a lot” (28%).
• A majority of Americans are worried about harm from extreme events in their local area including extreme heat (69%), droughts (64%), flooding (60%), and/or water shortages (59%).

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This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the
George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication. Interview dates: March 29-April 8, 2019. Interviews: 1,291 adults in the U.S. (18+). Average margin of error +/- 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The research was funded by the 11th Hour Project, the Endeavor
Foundation, the Energy Foundation, the TomKat Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. A special thank you goes to Parrish Bergquist, Ph.D. and Matto Mildenberger, Ph.D. for creating an automated version of this report.

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Principle Investigators

Anthony Leiserowitz, PhD
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
[email protected]

Edward Maibach, MPH, PhD
George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication
[email protected]

Seth Rosenthal, PhD
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
[email protected]

John Kotcher, PhD
George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication
[email protected]

Cite as:
Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Rosenthal, S., Kotcher, J., Bergquist, P., Ballew, M., Goldberg, M., & Gustafson, A. (2019). Climate change in the American mind: April 2019. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.