Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

7. Political Actions to Limit Global Warming

7.1. 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 20% who say they have signed a petition about global warming at least “once,” 16% who say they have donated money to an organization working on global warming at least “once,” and 7% who say they have volunteered their time to an organization working on global warming.

7.2. About one in ten registered voters have urged elected officials to reduce global warming.

Eleven 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 22% of liberal Democrats, 11% of moderate/conservative Democrats, 6% of liberal/moderate Republicans, and 2% of conservative Republicans.

7.3. 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 large majorities of liberal Democrats (85%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (69%), but fewer liberal/moderate Republicans (37%) and conservative Republicans (17%). About one in three registered voters would volunteer their time to an organization working on global warming (32%), donate money to an organization working on global warming (32%), or write letters, email, or phone government officials about global warming (31%). One in four (25%) would meet with an elected official or their staff about global warming.

About one in four registered voters (24%) would support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse, and 13% (including 25% of liberal Democrats) would personally engage in such non-violent civil disobedience.

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

Although 13% 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 7.3), 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. 67). This includes 7% of liberal Democrats, 3% of moderate/conservative Democrats, and 1% of liberal/moderate Republicans, but no conservative Republicans.

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 161 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 6.5 million registered voters may be willing to do so.

7.5. About one in four 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.

About one in four in ten registered voters (28%) say they are either “definitely” (7%) or “probably” (19%) 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. 68). This includes 56% of liberal Democrats (3% “currently,” 14% “definitely,” 38% “probably”), 33% of moderate/conservative Democrats (1% “currently,” 8% “definitely,” 24% “probably”), 16% of liberal/moderate Republicans (none “currently,” 6% “definitely,” 10% “probably”), and 7% of conservative Republicans (1% “currently,” 2% “definitely,” and 4% “probably”).