Report · May 8, 2018
Politics & Global Warming, March 2018
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Connie Roser-Renouf, Seth Rosenthal, Matthew Cutler and John Kotcher
Filed under: Policy & Politics
6. Individual and Collective Action to Reduce Global Warming
6.1. A majority of registered voters say they would vote for a candidate because of their position on global warming.
The majority of registered voters say they would vote for a candidate for public office because of their position on global warming (54%), including a large majority of Democrats (72%), but only a minority of Independents (42%) and Republican (36%).
More than three in ten registered voters say they would donate money to an organization working on global warming (37%), write letters, email, or phone government officials about global warming (35%), volunteer their time to an organization working on global warming (33%), and/or meet with elected officials or their staff about global warming (32%).
Democrats would be 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. Only one in five liberal Democrats have done so.
Only about one in eight registered voters (13%) say they have contacted an elected official during the past 12 months to urge them to take action to reduce global warming. However, 18% of Democrats, including 21% of liberal Democrats, and 16% of both Independents and moderate/conservative Democrats say they have done so. Only 6% of Republicans say they have done so.
6.3. One in three voters would join, or are already participating in, a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming.
One in three registered voters (34%) are either participating (3%), or would definitely (10%) or probably (22%) participate, in a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming. This includes half of Democrats (51%), including 61% of liberal Democrats and 40% of moderate/conservative Democrats. Three in ten Independents (31%) and 15% of Republicans (23% of liberal/moderate Republicans and 11% of conservative Republicans) would join, or are participating in, such a campaign.
