Resource Center

The segment of the American public “alarmed” about climate change has grown from 17% (2008) to 26% (2020). This is the biggest change of any of the “Six Americas” global warming belief categories of public opinion (others include “concerned”, “cautious”, “disengaged”, “doubtful”, “dismissive”). Notably, higher proportions of Latinos (37%) and Black Americans (27%) are “alarmed”—as compared to White Americans (22%). Among the total population, the second biggest change from 2008-2020 has occurred among the “disengaged”, dropping from 15% (2008) to 6% (2020) of the US.             

Lack of racial and ethnic representation among journalists may relate to the common misperception that White Americans are the most concerned about climate change. Although news reporting on climate change plays a crucial role in shaping public understanding of the issue, little is known about racial/ethnic representation in climate change reporting. In a survey of over 1,000 professional journalists, this resource finds that White journalists were much more likely than Black, Hispanic, or multiracial journalists to have reported on at least one local climate change story in the past year. This lack of representation may contribute to the common misperception that concern about climate change is the domain of affluent Whites, when, in fact, people of color are actually more vulnerable to, and more concerned about, the impacts of climate change than their White counterparts. This resource also reports journalist perceptions of, and interest in, climate change reporting by race/ethnicity.

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines from this week’s public polls, good data points to highlight, and a full roundup including key takeaways from each poll.
HEADLINES

Climate Power + Data for Progress – Voters in moderate U.S. House budget holdouts’ home districts want clean energy and climate investments on top of the infrastructure bill (Release, Topline)
POLITICO/Morning Consult – Climate ranks at the top of Democratic voters’ legislative priorities, and there is little backlash to the infrastructure bill (Crosstabs)
Navigator – With awareness of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework low, providing basic details still significantly boosts support with all constituencies (Topline)
Economist/YouGov – Rising sea levels, extreme heat, and drought continue to be the most widely accepted examples of climate affecting weather today (Topline, Crosstabs)
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication – Hot, dry days are more likely to affect Americans’ climate change beliefs than other types of extreme weather (Article, Published Study)
Quinnipiac – Half of Floridians think that climate change will negatively impact the state in their lifetimes (Release)

The training featured two peer-to-peer text messaging case studies. Max Parish and Stephanie Bowman of the climate organization Mothers Out Front, gave specifics on how a small social justice group (not MOF) in North Carolina used a long but effective canvassing script delivered via text message (SMS) to help find new supporters for a racial justice fight and how Mothers Out Front uses SMS as part of their distributed organizing program to find members ready to help the organization expand into new turf.

Individual studies come out all the time (and the Lab loves to let you know about all of them when they do), but it can be difficult to piece together the big picture from all the data points. Occasionally we get to do that when researchers comprehensively review and synthesize a whole body of others’ work (in what’s known as a “meta-analysis”). It’s smart to pay more attention to such meta-analyses than the back and forth of individual studies: just like IPCC reports are more authoritative than any one climate research paper. Today we discuss surprising results and important guidance for anyone planning climate persuasion programs from such a review, published earlier this year.
And the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall is Sunday, so check out the solidarity toolkit as #WeRemember.
I’ll also add that with the reconciliation outline just having passed the US House, you may wish to revisit our earlier newsletters on infrastructure legislation organizing and best practices for policymaker contact.

Relational climate conversations (talking about climate change with people you know) can be very effective at changing hearts and minds, but requires thoughtful practice to implement and evaluate. It takes more than just trainings and a script. Rather, the tactic only works with an existing organizational support structure that can create a community of collective accountability and help advocates navigate potentially vulnerable social interactions. Intentional focus on community-building and mutual support is key.  A panel presentation as part of the Greenpeace Data Activist Co-Op.