Report · Jul 16, 2024
Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Spring 2024
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Emily Goddard, Jennifer Carman, Matthew Ballew, Marija Verner, Teresa Myers, Jennifer Marlon, Sanguk Lee, Matthew Goldberg, Nicholas Badullovich and Kathryn Thier
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes, Climate Impacts and Behaviors & Actions
6. Impacts of Global Warming
6.1. Two-thirds of Americans think global warming is affecting weather in the United States.
About two-thirds of Americans (66%) think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, including a majority (58%) who think global warming is affecting U.S. weather either “a lot” (36%) or “some” (22%).
As noted above, 36% of Americans think global warming is affecting weather “a lot.”
6.2. Most Americans think global warming is affecting environmental problems in the United States.
Most Americans think global warming is affecting many environmental problems in the United States at least “a little.” Seven in ten or more think global warming is affecting extreme heat (74%), wildfires (73%), droughts (72%), and rising sea levels (70%). Six in ten or more think global warming is affecting air pollution (69%), flooding (68%), hurricanes (68%), water shortages (67%), tornados (65%), reduced snow pack (63%), agricultural pests and diseases (62%), water pollution (61%), and electricity power outages (61%).
6.3. A majority of Americans think extreme weather poses a risk to their community.
A majority of Americans (56%) think extreme weather poses either a “high” (18%) or “moderate” (38%) risk to their community over the next 10 years. Fewer think extreme weather poses either a “low” risk (30%) or “no” risk (6%).
6.4. A majority of Americans are worried about harm from environmental problems in their local area.
Section 6.2 of this report outlines the degree to which Americans think global warming is already affecting numerous environmental problems. This section details how worried Americans are that each of those environmental problems will harm their local area in the future. Majorities of Americans are at least “a little worried” their local area might be harmed by electricity power outages (79%, an increase of 5 percentage points since we last asked this question in our Fall 2023 survey), water pollution (79%, +12 percentage points since Fall 2023), air pollution (77%, +4 points), extreme heat (76%, +6 points), agricultural pests and diseases (72%, +9 points), droughts (69%, +6 points), flooding (63%, +5 points), water shortages (67%, +11 points), wildfires (61%, +9 points), tornados (58%, no significant change since Fall 2023), and rising sea levels (50%, +12 points). Many Americans are also worried their local area might be harmed by reduced snow pack (45%, +8 points) and hurricanes (45%, +6 points).
6.5. About two in three Americans think wildfires have increased around the world as a result of global warming.
About two in three Americans (68%) either “strongly” (28%) or “somewhat” (40%) agree that wildfires have increased around the world as a result of global warming.
