Report · Jul 8, 2025
Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Spring 2025
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Emily Goddard, Jennifer Carman, Marija Verner, Teresa Myers, Joshua Ettinger, Julia Fine, Emily Richards, Matthew Goldberg and Jennifer Marlon
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes, Behaviors & Actions and Climate Impacts
5. Global Warming and Personal Agency
5.1 Few Americans think it is too late to do anything about global warming.
Six in ten Americans (60%) either “strongly” (35%) or “somewhat” (26%) disagree with the statement: “it’s already too late to do anything about global warming.” By contrast, relatively few Americans (16%) either “strongly” (3%) or “somewhat” (13%) agree with this statement. An additional 18% say they “don’t know.”
5.2 More than half of Americans disagree with the statement “the actions of a single individual won’t make any difference in global warming.”
More than half of Americans (55%) either “strongly” (20%) or “somewhat” (35%) disagree with the statement “the actions of a single individual won’t make any difference in global warming” (refer to data tables, p. 74). In comparison, 44% of Americans either “strongly” (20%) or “somewhat” (24%) agree that individual actions won’t make a difference.
5.3 More than half of Americans do not think new technologies can solve global warming without individual action.
More than half of Americans (53%) either “strongly” (17%) or “somewhat” (36%) disagree with the statement “new technologies can solve global warming without individuals having to make big changes in their lives” (refer to data tables, p. 75), while 47% either “strongly” (10%) or “somewhat” (37%) agree with this statement.
