Environmental Polling Roundup – June 9th, 2023

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including a new report from Yale and George Mason’s long-running “Climate Change in the American Mind” series + new polling on the shipping industry.

See this webpage for links to the following resources.

HEADLINES

Yale + GMU – Clear majorities continue to say that global warming is happening, caused by humans, and affecting the weather; most Americans reject climate fatalism and say that there is still time to act (Website, Full Report)

Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU – Voters support transitioning the cargo shipping industry to zero carbon emissions by 2040 (Release, Topline)

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Extreme heat is the single most salient way to demonstrate that climate change is here and hurting people today. Yale and George Mason find that extreme heat is the environmental problem that people worry most about in their local area, and the environmental problem that people are most likely to believe is related to global warming. Polling has long shown that concerns about climate change and extreme heat naturally spike in the warmer months, so you can expect extreme heat to become an even more resonant example of the dangers of climate change as we get into the summer. 
   
• We’re winning the fight against climate fatalism, but need to show people that they can personally make a difference. Yale and George Mason find that Americans widely reject the idea that it’s “too late to do anything about global warming.” Americans also disagree that individual actions can’t have an impact on the problem, but not by an overwhelming margin. While it’s encouraging that Americans see a window to act on climate change, there’s much more work to do to increase people’s senses of self-efficacy.
   

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

• [Climate Change] 74% of Americans recognize that global warming is happening, compared to just 15% who deny it  [Yale + GMU]
   
• [Climate Change + Extreme Weather] Large majorities of Americans recognize that global warming is affecting extreme weather events in the U.S. such as extreme heat (75%), wildfires (71%), droughts (71%), flooding (69%), water shortages (69%), and hurricanes (68%) [Yale + GMU]
   
• [Climate Change Fatalism] 66% of Americans disagree that it’s too late to do anything about global warming, compared to just 13% who agree that it’s too late [Yale + GMU]
   
• [Climate Change] 61% of Americans recognize that global warming is mostly caused by humans [Yale + GMU]
   
• [Shipping] 83% of voters support gradually requiring all cargo ships to run on cleaner fuels and ultimately produce no carbon pollution by 2040 [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
   
• [Shipping] 77% of voters support requiring ships to produce no carbon or air pollution while docked in U.S. ports by 2030 [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
   
• [Issue Priority] More Americans name climate change and the environment as the single “most important issue” to them than any other issue aside from inflation/prices, health care, and the economy/jobs [The Economist + YouGov]