Yale’s Climate Communications Center recently published its 2019 U.S. public opinion maps regarding climate change, broken down by state, congressional district, and county, with some surprising results — nationwide, now 67% of Americans nationwide believe climate change is real and in only a few dozen counties across the entire U.S. does the number who believes drop below 50%.  Moreover, when it comes to who should take action on climate change, 69% of Americans believe corporations should do more and 60% believe the President should do more.  Most interesting of all, 64% of Americans believe that individuals must also do more to address climate change — so they are willing to take actions themselves, not just expect the government to solve this problem, but only 42% believe it will impact them personally.

Why This Matters:  This most recent survey shows that climate change attitudes in the U.S. are changing rapidly and that the public nationwide — in both red and blue states — expects more action from its leaders in business and national government.  Interestingly, the public is less likely to insist that state and local officials should do more about climate change, with fewer than 50% of the public in rural counties believing fighting climate change should be undertaken by governors and mayors. And a majority of the public is willing to do their part too.  Which means that even though fighting climate change will mean changing certain ways of life, they may be willing to do so, even though many fewer of them believe that global warming will actually harm them personally.

Poll Results

• 53% of Americans believe global warming is mostly caused by human activities
• 52% of Americans believe that most scientists agree that global warming is happening
• 59% of Americans believe that global warming is affecting the weather
• 60% of Americans are worried about global warming
• 69% of Americans believe global warming will harm plants and animals
• 67% of Americans believe global warming will harm future generations
• 62% of Americans believe global warming will harm people in developing nations
• 57% of Americans believe global warming will harm people in the U.S.
• 42% of Americans believe global warming will harm them personally
• 48% of Americans believe that global warming is already harming people in the U.S. or will within 10 years

To Go Deeper:  You can see how the survey results play out across the country by county, state, or Congressional district.  Just click here.