Environmental Polling Roundup – September 29, 2023

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls – including new polling on the factors that shape Americans’ attitudes about climate change, plus new polling on federal climate action and climate-smart agriculture funding. 

See this page for links to all the following resources.

HEADLINES

AP + NORC – Nearly nine in ten Americans say that they’ve experienced an extreme weather event, and extreme weather continues to shape Americans’ climate attitudes [Release, Topline]

The Economist + YouGov – Americans are much more likely to say that the U.S. is doing too little on climate change than to say that the country is doing too much [Topline, Crosstabs]

[U.S. House Districts] LCV – Constituents in key U.S. House districts support climate-smart agriculture funding and reject arguments to repeal it in the Farm Bill [Release, including five district-specific decks]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• This summer’s heat waves have woken more Americans up to the realities of climate change. The AP and NORC find that the percentage of Americans who say that they’ve been impacted by extreme weather has increased since this spring, with a particularly sharp increase in the percentage who say that they’ve experienced extreme heat. Their polling additionally finds that Americans are more likely to acknowledge that climate change is happening, more likely to say that their concerns about climate change are growing, and more likely to say that extreme weather events are influencing their climate views than they were in April. This is part of a larger trend we commonly see in Americans’ climate attitudes, with concerns about climate change tending to peak in the warmer summer months. 
   
• The public is inclined to protect climate-smart agriculture funding. LCV finds that constituents in key U.S. House districts have instinctively positive reactions to the concept of climate-smart agriculture and widely support funding for climate-smart agricultural practices after learning that this funding was included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Support for climate-smart agriculture funding also withstands a simulated debate, with constituents siding more with arguments in favor of preserving this funding than repealing it. While we shouldn’t expect everyday Americans to have deep familiarity with the concept of climate-smart agriculture, these findings indicate that advocates fighting to protect climate-smart agriculture funding in the Farm Bill will find a receptive audience in the general public.
   

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

• [Climate Change] 74% of Americans recognize that climate change is happening [AP + NORC]
   
• [Climate Change] 52% of Americans say they’ve become more concerned about climate change over the past year, while only 9% have become less concerned [AP + NORC]
   
• [Climate-Smart Agriculture] 55%+ of constituents in key U.S. House districts support the climate-smart agriculture funding in the Inflation Reduction Act [LCV]
   
• [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 and health care [The Economist + YouGov]