Climate Change in the American Mind: Public Perceptions of the Health Harms of Global Warming, Fall 2024


3. Beliefs About the Health Harms of Energy Sources

3.1 Most Americans think coal and nuclear energy are harmful to people’s health.

About two-thirds of Americans (65%) view coal as “extremely,”, “very,” or “moderately” harmful to people’s health, and about half (53%) think nuclear energy is at least “moderately” harmful. Smaller (but increased) proportions of Americans think natural gas (38%, +9 percentage points since 2018), wind (15%, +9 points), and solar energy (12%, +7 points) are harmful to people’s health.

This dot plot shows the percentage of Americans in 2018 and 2024 who say various energy sources are "extremely,", "very," or "moderately" harmful to people's health. Most Americans think coal and nuclear energy are harmful to people’s health. Data: Climate Change in the American Mind, Fall 2024. Refer to the data tables in Appendix 1 of the report for all percentages.