Resource Type: Polling & Surveys

The Climate Reality Project and Citizens’ Climate Lobby were interested in knowing whether informing people about existing bipartisan governmental bodies (e.g., the Climate Solutions Caucus in the US House of Representatives) would make the public, in particular moderates and conservatives, both think and act differently about climate. Their hypothesis was that signaling bipartisanship and governmental provenance in an organization could increase enthusiasm about climate action by showing people that powerful interests could unite to tackle the issue.
They find that messaging about government initiatives (as opposed to business and NGO efforts) significantly increases peoples’ sense of efficacy for climate action, which then translates to increased support for personal action-taking. Among conservative men, emphasizing bipartisan government action increases their support for personal action by 30% compared to the bipartisan NGO condition due to raising their second-order beliefs. In other words, telling conservative men that bipartisan governmental groups exist to work on climate change reduces their propensity to say that the average Republican opposes climate action by the government. The researchers do not find any evidence that emphasizing bipartisan government action increases respondents’ optimism about the climate crisis.

Climate change is a major motivator to support clean energy among civically engaged Latinos. A survey of supporters of the Latino civic engagement organization Mi Familia Vota Education Fund found that climate was as or more often rated as an “extremely important” rationale for moving to 100% clean energy cities than any other reason, including the job benefits it could produce. Additionally, neither school systems nor city government emerged as an obviously more attractive campaign target when survey respondents were asked about their familiarity with and confidence in influencing these two institutions (i.e., “efficacy” beliefs). This research was conducted as part of a field research grant to Climate Parents from the Climate Advocacy Lab.

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines from this week’s public polls, good data points to highlight, and a full roundup with key takeaways from each poll – including new polling on the Build Back Better budget and a new Pew report on climate change attitudes in advanced economies across the world.
HEADLINES

Pew – Most Americans are willing to make changes to their own lives to help reduce the effects of climate change; ideology plays a larger role in shaping Americans’ climate attitudes than it does in other advanced economies (Release, Full Report, Topline)
Data for Progress – The Build Back Better budget enjoys broad support in U.S. Senate battlegrounds, other key states (Release, National memo including links to 12 state-specific memos and toplines)
Data for Progress – Voters overwhelmingly support additional funding (beyond what’s included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework) to fully replace all lead drinking water pipes in the country (Release)
University of Bath – Climate anxiety is a major stressor for young people; over one-third of young Americans are hesitant to have children because of the climate crisis (Academic Article in Pre-Published Form)

Key Takeaways:

Support for Biden and Democrats’ new economic plan is vast, with seven in ten Americans in support of it.
Lowering prescription drug prices and expanding Medicare to include vision, dental, and hearing coverage are the most broadly supported proposals for new economic legislation.
Nearly three in four say it is urgent that the House and Senate pass this legislation.

This post includes a roundup of climate + environment headlines from this week’s public polls, good data points to highlight, and a full roundup with key takeaways from each poll – including new polls on the Build Back Better budget, a study on the impact of language in the natural gas debate, and extreme weather polling.
HEADLINES

Navigator – Specific details engender broad support for the Build Back Better budget, even when it’s framed as a Democratic bill (Release, Slide Deck, Topline)
Washington Post/ABC News – The Build Back Better budget has slim majority support when described as $3.5 trillion in spending for “expanded social programs, educational assistance and programs to address climate change” (Topline, Crosstabs)
No Labels & American Action Network – Opposition polls claim that Americans want to pause on the kind of government spending included in the Build Back Better budget (Axios Article on No Labels Poll, No Labels Release, American Action Network Release)
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication – Language used to describe gas as an energy source is hugely impactful in shaping opinions; Americans have positive attitudes about “natural gas,” but not about methane (Academic Paper, YPCCC Article)
Economist/YouGov – Americans continue to attribute recent extreme weather events more to climate change than natural patterns; nearly one in four say they were personally impacted by Eastern seaboard hurricanes (Topline, Crosstabs)