07/15/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/16/2024 07:19
Date
July 15, 2024
News Type
Press Release
What's the story?
As Americans prepare to vote this fall, climate change will factor into many voters' decisions at the polls. But amid rising global temperatures and a slew of new federal climate policies, how could climate opinions inform the national conversation? A new survey by researchers at Stanford University and Resources for the Future (RFF) is working to help answer this question.
The survey, Climate Insights 2024: American Understanding of Climate Change, is the first installment in a series of reports to be released throughout the summer that details American opinions on climate change. The initial report outlines Americans' thoughts on topics ranging from trust in climate science to solar-powered electricity, putting the past several years' worth of climate policies, extreme weather, and partisan divides in a new light.
The survey finds that considerable majorities of Americans believe in climate change and recognize the need to mitigate its threats to society. However, despite increasing engagement in the issue, these majorities have not grown larger over the past two and a half decades.
"Americans are incredibly consistent in their understanding of climate change. While this consistency is notable, it's a pattern that we see on many other issues, such as gun control and reproductive rights. Americans are concerned about climate change and most Americans support dealing with this issue, which they believe is a threat."
-Jon Krosnick, Stanford University professor and RFF university fellow
What are some key findings?
These are just a few highlights from the report; more results about what Americans think about the fundamentals of climate change, its threat to society, issue engagement, desired effort to deal with warming, personal observations of climate change, and more appear in the report.
What is Climate Insights?
The Climate Insights survey is the result of a longstanding polling partnership led by researchers at Stanford University and RFF. This series examines American public opinion on issues related to climate change through rigorous national surveys of random samples of American adults. This year's reports represent a survey of 1,000 American adults who were interviewed between October 16, 2023, and February 23, 2024, by the survey research firm ReconMR.
Several more reports will be released through the summer and will cover topics such as American opinions on environmental justice, climate policies, areas of partisan agreement, and more.
The last batch of reports was released during the summer and fall of 2020.
Where can I learn more?
For more information, read the report, Climate Insights 2024: American Understanding of Climate Change, by Jon A. Krosnick (Stanford University and RFF) and Bo MacInnis (Stanford University). Use our interactive data tool to explore the survey findings in more detail.
You can hear more of Krosnick's thoughts on the survey series and this report's findings in this short video.
Stay tuned for more installments in this survey series.
Resources for the Future (RFF) is an independent, nonprofit research institution in Washington, DC. Its mission is to improve environmental, energy, and natural resource decisions through impartial economic research and policy engagement. RFF is committed to being the most widely trusted source of research insights and policy solutions leading to a healthy environment and a thriving economy.
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed here are those of the individual authors and may differ from those of other RFF experts, its officers, or its directors. RFF does not take positions on specific legislative proposals.
For more information, please see our media resources page or contact Media Relations and Communications Specialist Annie McDarris.