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
8. Global Warming and Severe Weather
8.1. Two in three Americans think global warming is affecting weather in the United States.
Two in three Americans (66%) think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, including more than half (58%) who think global warming is affecting U.S. weather either “a lot” (33%) or “some” (25%).
As noted above, one in three Americans (33%) think global warming is affecting weather “a lot.” The percentage of Americans who think global warming is affecting the weather “a lot” has increased by ten percentage points since we first asked this question in April 2013.
8.2. A majority of Americans are worried about harm from extreme events in their local area.
A majority of Americans are at least “a little worried” about extreme events in their local areas, including extreme heat (66%), droughts (65%), flooding (60%), and water shortages (56%). Fewer are worried about wildfires (47%), hurricanes (41%), or reduced snow pack (37%).
8.3. A majority of Americans think extreme weather poses a risk to their community.
A majority of Americans think extreme weather poses either a “high” (16%) or “moderate” (40%) risk to their community over the next 10 years. Fewer think extreme weather poses either a “low” risk (33%) or “no” risk (5%).
