Understanding the health harms of climate change: A Six Americas analysis

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%).

There is evidence that this growing concern for climate change is accompanied by an understanding that climate change can directly harm humans. In 2014%, only 34% of respondents expected increases in bodily harm caused by severe storms and hurricanes over the coming decade but in 2020 that number rose to 57%. Overall, risk perceptions about the health harms from climate change increased over these six years among members of all but two of the most skeptical segments of the population – doubtful and dismissive.