Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

9. Political Actions to Limit Global Warming

9.1. Relatively few registered voters have engaged in political actions to reduce global warming in the past year.

Relatively few registered voters have engaged in political actions to reduce global warming over the past 12 months, including 14% who say they have signed a petition about global warming at least “once,” 11% who say they have donated money to an organization working on global warming at least “once,” and 4% who say they have volunteered their time to an organization working on global warming. One percent of registered voters say they have personally engaged in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse at least “once” over the past 12 months.

9.2. Relatively few registered voters have urged elected officials to reduce global warming.

Seven percent of registered voters have contacted government officials to urge them to take action to reduce global warming at least once over the past 12 months. This includes 18% of liberal Democrats and 8% of moderate/conservative Democrats, but only 1% of conservative Republicans and no liberal/moderate Republicans.

9.3. Many registered voters are willing to take political actions to reduce global warming if asked.

About half of registered voters (51%) say they would sign a petition about global warming if someone they like and respect asked them to, including large majorities of liberal Democrats (79%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (76%), but fewer liberal/moderate Republicans (36%) and conservative Republicans (15%). Fewer say they would donate money to an organization working on global warming (25%), meet with an elected official or their staff about global warming (25%), contact government officials about global warming (25%), or volunteer their time to an organization working on global warming (24%).

One in five registered voters (20%) would support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse, and 12% (including 21% of liberal Democrats) would personally engage in such non-violent civil disobedience.

9.4. Few registered voters would be willing to get arrested as part of a non-violent civil disobedience action.

Although 12% of registered voters say they would personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse (refer to section 9.3), only 4% say they would be willing to get arrested as part of such an action (1% “definitely would,” 3% “probably would”; refer to data tables, p. 64). This includes 9% of liberal Democrats, 4% of liberal/moderate Republicans, 3% of moderate/conservative Democrats, and 1% of conservative Republicans.

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 168 million registered voters in the United States. Given that 1% say they “definitely would” get arrested as part of a non-violent action against activities that make global warming worse, and an additional 3% “probably would,” it suggests that approximately 1.5 million to 7 million registered voters may be willing to do so.

9.5. One in four registered voters are participating, or willing to participate, in a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming – although current participation is low.

One in four in ten registered voters (25%) say they are either “definitely” (6%) or “probably” (18%) willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming or are currently participating in such a campaign (2%; refer to data tables, p. 65). This includes 48% of liberal Democrats (4% “currently,” 14% “definitely,” 29% “probably”), 35% of moderate/conservative Democrats (less than 1% “currently,” 6% “definitely,” 29% “probably”), 17% of liberal/moderate Republicans (1% “currently,” 2% “definitely,” 13% “probably”), and 6% of conservative Republicans (none “currently,” 2% “definitely,” and 5% “probably”).