Report · Dec 17, 2019
Climate Change in the American Mind: November 2019
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Parrish Bergquist, Matthew Ballew, Matthew Goldberg and Abel Gustafson
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 eight Americans (12%) agree either “strongly” (3%) or “somewhat” (9%) that it is too late to do anything about global warming. In contrast, about two in three Americans (66%) are more optimistic – they either “strongly” (38%) or “somewhat” (28%) disagree that it is too late to do anything about global warming.
6.2 Nearly half of Americans think new technologies can solve global warming.
Nearly half of Americans (48%) think new technologies can solve global warming without individuals having to make big changes in their lives. There has been an upward trend in this belief over the past five years, with the percentage increasing by seven percentage points since October 2014.
