Today I’ll look at some data from the Pew Research Center. Pew is a wonderful resource for understanding public attitudes. They even make a lot of their data available for additional research. It is a center I admire. One of the things they do investigate is the US public’s views of science, including what they think of topics like climate change. So, do Americans believe in climate change? You might be surprised to hear that the answer is, essentially, yes.
Do Americans Believe In Climate Change?
The headline is that Americans believe that climate change is happening. Indeed, 64% of them see a great deal (26%) or some (38%) impact on their localities. This total goes as high as 72% in the mid-Atlantic (e.g., DC). Even in the mid-west, where people were the least likely to have noticed local impacts, 58% of people still said they have seen at least some impact.
The simple conclusion is that majority of Americans not only believe in climate change but believe it is impacting their localities. That can often be forgotten when we hear of a backlash to climate policies. There is a significant majority who in the right circumstances (admittedly the check people are willing to write to address the problem is not a blank one) would likely be receptive to policies to address the impact of climate change.
Human Activities And Climate Change
There are really two questions to understand to uncover what people think of climate change.
- Do they think it is happening?
- Do they think it is us humans doing it?
People can theoretically think climate change is happening but not think it is human’s fault. This ignores a lot of scientists who say otherwise (see the IPCC reports) but it happens.
Pew’s report (December 2024) suggests that 25% of US adults don’t think climate change is anything to do with us humans. Presumably this quarter wouldn’t be especially positive about supporting policies designed to address human contributions to climate change. That said, they still might be in favor of some adaption policies.
Note that even a majority of Republicans (55% from 20%+35%) think human activity somewhat contributes to climate change.
Who Isn’t Doing Enough?
Given three quarters of Americans see humans causing a problem, the who exactly do they blame? Large corporations top that list, with 69% saying they were doing too little. People don’t like what business is doing.
At the other extreme only 33% think environmental organizations aren’t doing enough. The third of people who don’t think environmental organizations are doing enough seem like tough graders.
Interestingly, 57% of respondents think ordinary Americans aren’t doing enough. It would be interesting how many people think of themselves in the group who are not doing enough. We are all imperfect so, to be completely accurate, we could all be doing more.
Strangely this 57% figure mirrors the same amount who think the energy industry aren’t doing enough. Admittedly the energy industry is a loose term, but it seemed a little harsh to blame ordinary Americans as much as fossil fuel companies.
Do Americans Believe In Climate Change? Yes
Most Americans think:
- human activities cause climate change,
- that climate change has impacted their localities, and
- business isn’t doing enough.
That is worth bearing in mind for businesspeople in designing their strategies. There is a lot of potential support for approaches that lower greenhouse gases out there.
For more on climate change see The Pope And The Climate Crisis, Measuring Impact On Climate, and What To Do About Climate?
Read: Brian Kennedy and Alec Tyson (2024) How Americans View Climate Change and Policies to Address the Issue, Pew Research Center, December 9, 2024
