Report · Jun 4, 2020
Politics & Global Warming, April 2020
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Matthew Ballew, Parrish Bergquist, Abel Gustafson, Matthew Goldberg and Xinran Wang
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes, Behaviors & Actions and Policy & Politics
1. The Politics of Global Warming Beliefs
1.1. Most registered voters think global warming is happening.
Three in four registered voters (75%) think global warming is happening, the highest level recorded since our surveys began in 2008. This includes nearly all liberal Democrats (98%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (92%; the highest level recorded for that group), and about seven in ten liberal/moderate Republicans (69%). In contrast, only about half of conservative Republicans (47%) think global warming is happening.
1.2. A majority of registered voters think global warming is caused mostly by human activities.
About six in ten registered voters (61%) think global warming is caused mostly by human activities. This includes large majorities of liberal Democrats (92%) and moderate/conservative Democrats (77%), both at their highest levels since our surveys began in 2008.
Half of liberal/moderate Republicans (50%) think global warming is mostly human-caused while only 30% of conservative Republicans think so.
1.3. Two in three registered voters are worried about global warming.
Two in three registered voters (66%) are “very” or “somewhat” worried about global warming. This includes nearly all liberal Democrats (97%) and a large majority of moderate/conservative Democrats (85%).
About half of liberal/moderate Republicans (55%) are worried about global warming. Only about one in four conservative Republicans (27%) are worried.
