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
6. Individual and Collective Action to Reduce Global Warming
6.1. About half of registered voters say they would vote for a candidate because of their position on global warming.
About half of registered voters say they would vote for a candidate for public office because of the candidate’s position on global warming (51%), including a large majority of Democrats (75%), but only a minority of Independents (41%) and Republicans (28%).
About three in ten registered voters say they would write letters, email, or phone government officials about global warming (31%), donate money to an organization working on global warming (31%), meet with elected officials or their staff about global warming (30%), and/or volunteer their time to an organization working on global warming (29%).
Democrats are most likely to say they would take these actions. Independents and Republicans are less likely.
6.2. Few registered voters have urged an elected official to take action to reduce global warming during the past 12 months. About one in four liberal Democrats have done so.
Only about one in nine registered voters (11%) say they have contacted an elected official during the past 12 months to urge them to take action to reduce global warming. However, 19% of Democrats, including 23% of liberal Democrats and 14% of moderate/conservative Democrats, say they have done so. Additionally, 11% of Independents, but only 3% of Republicans, have contacted an elected official to urge them to take action to reduce global warming.
6.3. About one in four voters would join, or are already participating in, a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming.
A total of about one in four registered voters (27%) are either participating (2%), definitely would participate (7%), or probably would participate (19%) in a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming. This includes about four in ten Democrats (42%; 52% of liberal Democrats and 28% of moderate/conservative Democrats), one in four Independents (26%), and 11% of Republicans (18% of liberal/moderate Republicans and 7% of conservative Republicans).
