Most Americans are not aware of the health harms of climate change. A recent survey showed that most Americans have not considered how global warming might affect people’s health, and few (32%) can name a specific way in which climate change is harming our health. Few are aware that some groups of Americans—including our children, our elders, the sick and the poor—are most likely to be harmed by climate change. None of these survey findings is surprising. There has been relatively little public discussion of the health harms of climate change. But we also know people are eager to hear from us. Most survey respondents said, in fact, that their primary care
physician is a trusted source for information about this topic.
The results of that survey can be downloaded here.