Report · Aug 3, 2021
Americans’ Actions to Limit and Prepare For Global Warming
By Jennifer Carman, Karine Lacroix, Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Liz Neyens, Xinran Wang, Jennifer Marlon and Matthew Goldberg
Filed under: Behaviors & Actions
3. Collective and Political Action to Limit Global Warming
3.1. Many Americans are willing to take political actions to reduce global warming.
About half of Americans (52%) say they would sign a petition about global warming. Three in ten or more say they would donate money (33%) or volunteer time (31%) to an organization working on global warming. One in four or more say they would write or phone government officials (28%), or meet with an elected official or their staff (25%), about global warming. Finally, about one in four (26%) would support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse, and 14% would personally engage in such non-violent civil disobedience.
3.2. Relatively few Americans have engaged in political actions to reduce global warming in the last year.
Relatively few Americans have actually engaged in political actions to reduce global warming over the past 12 months, including 15% who say they have signed a petition about global warming at least “once,” and 13% who say they have donated money to an organization working on global warming at least “once.” Fewer (6%) have volunteered their time to an organization working on global warming at least “once” in the past year.
3.3. Relatively few Americans have urged elected officials to reduce global warming.
Relatively few Americans (8%) have contacted government officials to urge them to take action to reduce global warming at least “once” over the past 12 months. The proportion who say they have contacted a government official to urge them to take action to reduce global warming declined four percentage points over the past year, falling back to the level when we first asked this question in January 2010.
3.4. Three in ten Americans are willing to participate in a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming. However, actual participation in a campaign remains low.
About three in ten Americans (29%) say they are “probably” or “definitely” willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming. However, only one percent say they are currently participating in a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming.
The percentage of Americans who say they are willing to join a campaign or are currently participating in one has remained fairly consistent since we first asked this question in November 2013.
3.5. More than three in ten Americans would join a local campaign to convince state and local officials to take action to reduce global warming.
More than three in ten Americans (35%) say they “definitely would” (10%) or “probably would” (24%) participate in a campaign to convince local government officials to take action to reduce global warming.
