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72% of Americans are 'very worried' about climate change
https://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/72-americans-are-very-worried-about-climate-change.html
72% of Americans are 'very worried' about climate change
Ilana Strauss, January 23, 2019
There's a tiny silver lining to all the ridiculous weather we've been having lately.
Guess what percentage of American say global warming is "personally important" to them. Just guess.
According to a new study put out by Yale University and George Mason University, it's 72 percent, up from 63 percent in March of 2018. Eight percent more Americans than before are "very worried" about climate change (40 percent are "somewhat worried" ). And 56 percent are concerned global warming will harm their families.
It's more proof that Americans are far more educated and concerned about the issue than many media outlets pretend. We've written about how 70 percent of Americans think protecting the environment is more important than growing the economy.
"Americans have, unfortunately, had far more experience with what climate change looks like," Anthony Leiserowitz, a researcher who worked on the study, told NPR.
Recent wildfires and other weather events were a big part of this spike. While I wasn't in California, I did experience yet another very weird Chicago winter that felt more like fall. I heard plenty of friends and family comment on how weird it was that December seemed like October.
http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Climate-Change-American-Mind-December-2018.pdf
From the report's EC:
Climate Change in the American Mind: December 2018: Executive Summary
This report documents a continued upward trend in Americans’ concern about global warming, as reflected in several key indicators tracked since 2008, including substantial increases in Americans’ certainty that global warming is happening and harming people in the United States now. The proportion of Americans who are very worried about global warming has more than tripled since its lowest point in 2011. Increasing numbers of Americans say they have personally experienced global warming and that the issue is personally important to them. Notable findings include:
Seven in ten Americans (73%) think global warming is happening, an increase of ten percentage points
since March 2015. Only about one in seven Americans (14%) think global warming is not happening.
Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it isn't by more than a 5
to 1 ratio.
Americans are also increasingly certain that global warming is happening – 51% are "extremely" or
"very" sure it is happening, an increase of 14 percentage points since March 2015, matching the highest
level since 2008. By contrast, far fewer – 7% – are "extremely" or "very sure" global warming is not
happening.
About six in ten Americans (62%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. By contrast,
about one in four (23%) say it is due mostly to natural changes in the environment.
More than half of Americans (57%) understand that most scientists agree that global warming is
happening, the highest level since 2008. However, only one in five (20%) understand how strong the
level of consensus among scientists is (i.e., that more than 90% of climate scientists have concluded that
human-caused global warming is happening).
About seven in ten Americans (69%) say they are at least "somewhat worried" about global warming.
About three in ten (29%) are "very worried" about it – the highest level since our surveys began in 2008.
About seven in ten Americans are "interested" in global warming (69%). Majorities also feel "disgusted"
(53%) and/or "helpless" (51%). Nearly half are "hopeful" (48%).
Few Americans think it's too late to do anything about global warming (14%).
Nearly half of Americans (46%) say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming, an
increase of 15 percentage points since March 2015.
Nearly half of Americans (48%) think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming
"right now." The proportion who believe people are being harmed "right now" has increased by 16
percentage points since March 2015 and by nine points since our previous survey in March 2018.
About half or more Americans think they (49%), their family (56%), and/or people in their community
(57%) will be harmed by global warming. Even more think global warming will harm people in the U.S.
(65%), the world's poor (67%), people in developing countries (68%), plant and animal species (74%),
and/or future generations of people (75%).
About seven in ten Americans (72%) say the issue of global warming is either "extremely," "very," or
"somewhat" important to them personally, while only about three in ten (28%) say it is either "not too" or
"not at all" personally important. The proportion who say it is personally important has increased by 16
percentage points since March 2015, and by nine points since our previous survey in March 2018.
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...our children and grand-children survive.
