Poll: Majorities Increasingly Want Climate Action

Above, new “6 Americas” data available from Yale and George Mason University pollsters.
CNN also has new polling reflecting increased concerns about climate and support for climate action.

CNN:

Nearly two-thirds of US adults say they are worried about the threat of climate change in their communities, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. More than half are worried about the impact of extreme weather, as the climate crisis touches every region in the form of extreme heat, devastating storms and drought.

Even more want the federal government to do something about it. A broad majority of US adults – 73% – say the federal government should develop its climate policies with the goal of cutting the country’s planet-warming pollution in half by the end of the decade.

That has been the goal of President Joe Biden, who has made tackling the climate crisis a greater priority than any other president, including through billions of dollars in tax subsidies to create more renewable energy infrastructure and help consumers buy discounted electric vehicles, solar panels and energy-efficient appliances. The Biden administration is also crafting and implementing several federal regulations designed to cut pollution from the oil and gas industry, power plants, and gas-powered vehicles.

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication:

In 2018, we created and published the Six Americas Survey (SASSY), a short, four-question online questionnaire that can be used to identify which Six Americas segment people belong to. Using SASSY as part of our Fall 2023 Climate Change in the American Mind nationally representative survey, we find that 28% of Americans are Alarmed and that the Alarmed outnumber the Dismissive (11%) by a ratio of more than 2 to 1. Further, when the Alarmed and Concerned are grouped together, a majority of Americans (56%) fall into one of these audiences.1 Overall, Americans are more than twice as likely to be Alarmed or Concerned than they are Doubtful or Dismissive (23%). Additionally, the percentage of Republicans who are either Alarmed or Concerned has increased by 6 percentage points over the past year (from 22% to 28%), while the already high percentage of Democrats who are Alarmed or Concerned has remained the same