Report · May 16, 2019
Politics & Global Warming, April 2019
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Matthew Ballew, Matthew Goldberg, Abel Gustafson and Parrish Bergquist
Filed under: Policy & Politics, Beliefs & Attitudes and Behaviors & Actions
1. The Politics of Global Warming Beliefs
1.1. Most registered voters think global warming is happening.
Seven in ten registered voters (70%) think global warming is happening. This includes nearly all liberal Democrats (95%), a large majority of moderate/conservative Democrats (87%), and most liberal/moderate Republicans (63%). In contrast, fewer than four in ten conservative Republicans (38%) think global warming is happening.
1.2. A majority of registered voters think global warming is caused by human activities.
A majority of registered voters (55%) think global warming is caused mostly by human activities. This includes more than eight in ten liberal Democrats (86%), and about seven in ten moderate/conservative Democrats (71%).
Fewer than half of liberal/moderate Republicans (46%), and only about one in five conservative Republicans (21%), think global warming is mostly human-caused.
1.3. A majority of registered voters are worried about global warming.
Six in ten registered voters (61%) are “very” or “somewhat” worried about global warming. This includes large majorities of liberal Democrats (93%; an increase of five percentage points since our March 2018 survey, see Data Tables) and moderate/conservative Democrats (81%).
About half of liberal/moderate Republicans (54%) are worried about global warming. Only one in five conservative Republicans (21%) are worried, a nine-point decrease since March 2018.
