Report · May 19, 2020
Climate Change in the American Mind: April 2020
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Parrish Bergquist, Matthew Ballew, Matthew Goldberg, Abel Gustafson and Xinran Wang
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes
6. Efficacy Beliefs
6.1. Few Americans think it is too late to do anything about global warming.
Only about one in ten Americans agree either “strongly” (2%) or “somewhat” (9%) that it is too late to do anything about global warming. In contrast, about two in three Americans (68%) are more optimistic – they either “strongly” (44%) or “somewhat” (24%) disagree that it is too late to do anything about global warming.
6.2. About half of Americans think new technologies can solve global warming.
About half of Americans (47%) think new technologies can solve global warming without individuals having to make big changes in their lives. There has been a general upward trend in this belief over the past five years, with the percentage increasing by nine percentage points since March 2015.
