Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

9. Political Advocacy

9.1 One-third of registered voters are participating in, or willing to join, a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming. Current participation is low.

One-third of registered voters (33%) say they are either “definitely” (11%) or “probably” (21%) willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming or participating in a campaign like this now (2%; refer to data tables, p. 64). This includes 64% of liberal Democrats (4% “participating now,” 21% “definitely would,” 39% “probably would”), 44% of moderate/conservative Democrats (1% “now,” 16% “definitely,” 27% “probably”), 18% of liberal/moderate Republicans (none “now,” 4% “definitely,” 14% “probably”), and 7% of conservative Republicans (1% “now,” 2% “definitely,” and 5% “probably”).

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

More than half of registered voters (54%) say they would sign a petition about global warming if someone they like and respect asked them to, including majorities of liberal Democrats (89%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (70%), but fewer liberal/moderate Republicans (42%) and conservative Republicans (20%). Additionally, many registered voters would attend a local government meeting related to global warming (33%), donate money to an organization working on global warming (32%), write letters, email, or phone government officials about global warming (30%), volunteer their time to an organization working on global warming (29%), or meet with an elected official or their staff about global warming (27%).

About three in ten registered voters (29%) would support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse, and 18% (including 31% of liberal Democrats and 25% of moderate/conservative Democrats) would personally engage in such non-violent civil disobedience.

9.3 Relatively few registered voters would be willing to get arrested as part of a non-violent civil disobedience action.

As noted in section 9.2, 18% of registered voters say they would personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse. One-third of them (6%) say additionally that they may be willing to get arrested as part of such an action (2% “definitely would,” 4% “probably would”; refer to data tables, p. 67). This includes 11% of liberal Democrats, 7% of moderate/conservative Democrats, 3% of liberal/moderate Republicans, and 1% of conservative Republicans.

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are approximately 174 million registered voters in the United States. Given that 2% say they “definitely would” get arrested as part of a non-violent action against activities that make global warming worse, and an additional 4% “probably would,” it suggests that approximately 3.4 million to 10.4 million registered voters may be willing to do so.

9.4 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 19% who say they have signed a petition about global warming at least once, 13% who say they have donated money to an organization working on global warming at least once, 7% who say they have attended a local government meeting related to global warming at least once, and 7% who say they have volunteered their time to an organization working on global warming.

9.5 One in ten registered voters have urged elected officials to reduce global warming.

One in ten registered voters (10%) have contacted government officials to urge them to take action to reduce global warming at least once over the past 12 months. This includes 19% of liberal Democrats, 14% of moderate/conservative Democrats, 3% of liberal/moderate Republicans, and 1% of conservative Republicans.