Issue: Climate & Health

Highlighting the negative health effects of using natural gas in the home may be the best way to increase opposition to gas. One recent experiment compared the potential effects of different frames about gas. Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents who saw ads about negative health impacts from gas in homes were 11.8% less likely to say gas is a clean form of energy. Hispanic respondents, in particular, were more likely to be interested in purchasing appliances that don’t use gas, such as electric and induction stove tops, after viewing ads focused on individual consumer choice. In addition to health and consumer choice, this advertising experiment also tested the effects of other frames, such as advances in technology, safety, green jobs, industry deception, and fracking. This advertising experiment found no effects of the ads on the views of any other demographic groups.

More Americans are alarmed about climate change. Survey research identified six unique audiences within the American public that each responds to the issue of climate change in their own distinct way: alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive. Between 2014 and 2020, the percentage of the population that is alarmed by climate change more than doubled and by April of 2020 over half of all American adults were in one of the two most worried segments – alarmed (25%) and concerned (28%).