This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new poll releases from Gallup about Americans’ environmental concerns and the impacts of extreme weather experiences on people’s climate views, and a new poll of voters’ attitudes about fossil fuels and clean energy in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 

HEADLINES

• Gallup - Americans’ concerns about the environment remain near record highs, and the public is especially worried about water pollution (Release)
• Gallup - Roughly one-third of Americans say they’ve been affected by extreme weather in the last two years; those who report direct experience with extreme weather are more likely to say they’re concerned about climate change (Release)
• Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU - Voters overwhelmingly agree that it is “more important than ever for the United States to become less dependent on fossil fuels” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but high support for increasing fossil fuel production in the short term shows that voters are feeling cross-pressured on the issue amid the current energy crisis (Release, Topline)

 

 

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

• 75% of voters agree that “the primary goal of U.S. energy policy should be achieving 100% clean energy” [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• 75% of voters support expanding tax credits and rebates for energy efficiency and weatherization programs for homeowners and businesses in response to the spike in gasoline and natural gas prices from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• 71% of voters agree that “it is more important than ever for the United States to become less dependent on fossil fuels such as oil and gas because of the spike in gasoline and natural gas prices that have been caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine” [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• 68% of voters support accelerating the transition to renewable energy in response to the spike in gasoline and natural gas prices from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• By a 63%-24% margin, voters support a “windfall tax” on oil and gas companies with proceeds distributed to average individuals and families in the U.S. to help offset high energy bills [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• By a 59%-35% margin, voters say that increasing production of renewable energy would be better for the United States’ energy independence than increasing production of fossil fuels [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• By a 55%-35% margin, voters say that increasing production of renewable energy would be better for national security than increasing production of fossil fuels [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• By a 53%-36% margin, voters say that increasing production of renewable energy would produce a greater number of good jobs than increasing production of fossil fuels [Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU]
• More Americans say that climate change and the environment is the single most important issue to them than any other issue aside from the economy and health care [Economist + YouGov]

 

 

FULL ROUNDUP

 

Gallup

Americans’ concerns about the environment remain near record highs, and the public is especially worried about water pollution (Release)

 

Gallup’s annual environmental poll finds that 44% of Americans worry “a great deal” about the environment. For context, this is just a few points shy of the highest level of concern that Gallup has found since they started tracking this metric in 2001. Pulling from the release:

 

“For the seventh straight year, U.S. public concern about the quality of the environment is near its two-decade high, with 44% of Americans worrying "a great deal" about it. The rest are about evenly divided between those worrying "a fair amount" (27%) versus "only a little" or "not at all" (28%).

 

The recent stretch of elevated public concern about the environment contrasts with more muted worry in the first 15 years after Gallup began tracking this public sentiment in 2001. From 2001 to 2015, closer to a third of Americans said they worried a great deal about the environment, with the figure exceeding 40% only twice, in 2001 and 2007.”

 

Looking back at Gallup’s data by party affiliation over the last two decades, Americans’ expressed concerns about the environment follow many of the same partisan trends as other issues. Self-identified Democrats and Republicans both tend to report higher levels of concern about the environment when the other party occupies the White House, for example. However, the Gallup data shows that public opinion about the environment stands out from public opinion about other similarly politicized issues in a couple of distinct ways: 

1. The long-term trend of increased concern about the environment, which is driven by Democrats and independents, started a couple of years before the Trump presidency so it is clearly not just driven by reactive partisanship
2. Independents say they are nearly as concerned about the environment as Democrats, whereas on most issues independent voters’ attitudes lie closer to the midpoint between Democrats’ and Republicans’ attitudes

 

Pulling again from the release:

 

“Consistent with their party's strong focus on environmental issues, including global warming, Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to harbor substantial concern about the environment, 56% versus 24%, respectively. However, bucking the typical pattern of political independents' views falling midway between Republicans' and Democrats', independents (50%) today are nearly as likely as Democrats to say they worry a great deal about the environment, leaving Republicans as the distinct outlier. While this wasn't always the case, independents' views have typically been closer to Democrats' since 2016.

 

Rising environmental worry among Democrats and independents starting around 2015 has driven overall public concern higher, even as Republicans' concern has remained consistently low.

 

Democrats' concern was highest during Donald Trump's presidency and has eased slightly since President Joe Biden took office in 2021; however, it is still higher than it was through most of Barack Obama's presidency, from 2009 to 2016. Meanwhile, independents' concern peaked in 2019 and has since remained near that level.”

 

Gallup also finds that Americans are more acutely concerned about water pollution than any other environmental problem, which is a consistent finding in polling on environmental issues. Majorities of Americans say they worry “a great deal” about pollution of drinking water (57%) and pollution of rivers, lakes and reservoirs (54%). These are the only two environmental problems that Gallup finds most Americans worry “a great deal” about, and pollution of drinking water ranked as either the clearest top concern or tied for the top concern among Americans of every partisan affiliation in this poll.

 

Here’s the full list of environmental problems that Gallup asked about in full, ranked by the % of Americans who say they worry “a great deal” about each one:

• Pollution of drinking water (57% worry “a great deal”)
• Pollution of rivers, lakes and reservoirs (54%)
• The loss of tropical rain forests (46%)
• Air pollution (45%)
• Extinction of plant and animal species (45%)
• Global warming or climate change (43%)

 

Looking at responses to this list by partisan affiliation, climate change continues to produce far more politically polarized attitudes than any other environmental problem: climate change ranks among the very highest environmental concerns for Democrats, but Gallup finds that it ranks at the bottom of this list among independents and Republicans.

 

This is not to say that Democrats are the only people who care about climate change; 44% of independents in this poll say they worry “a great deal” about climate change, for example. However, the partisan polarization on the issue is very stark (67% of Democrats worry “a great deal” about climate change in the poll, compared to just 13% of Republicans) and you’re more likely to bring right-leaning Americans on board with your message if you lead with or connect it to a relatively less politicized issue like clean water. 

 

Gallup

Roughly one-third of Americans say they’ve been affected by extreme weather in the last two years; those who report direct experience with extreme weather are more likely to say they’re concerned about climate change (Release)

 

Another release from Gallup this week underscores one of the major findings in polling about climate change in recent years: experience with extreme weather can be a powerful “eureka” moment that forces climate skeptics to recognize the reality of climate change.

 

Gallup finds that roughly one in three Americans (33%) say they’ve been personally affected by an extreme weather event in the area where they live in the past two years. (The actual figure of course depends on how one defines “extreme weather,” but a Washington Post analysis of federal disaster declarations last year also found that about one in three Americans experienced a climate-related weather disaster last summer.) 

 

Compared to those who say they haven’t experienced an extreme weather event, Gallup finds that these 33% of Americans who say they’ve recently experienced extreme weather are more concerned about climate change, more likely to say that the effects of global warming have already begun, and more likely to prioritize government action to protect the environment. 

 

Importantly, these effects also hold true within partisan groupings - so Republicans who say they’ve experienced extreme weather, for example, show more concern about climate change on a variety of metrics than Republicans who say they haven’t experienced extreme weather.

 

Pulling from the release, with emphasis added in bold:

 

“In general, extreme-weather victims worry more about climate change and are more likely to view it as a threat than those who have not experienced extreme weather in the past two years.

 

For example, 63% of those who have been affected by extreme weather worry "a great deal" about global warming or climate change, compared with 33% who have not been affected.

 

Nearly eight in 10 extreme-weather victims, 78%, believe the effects of global warming have already begun, compared with 51% of nonvictims. Sixty-four percent of victims and 36% of nonvictims say global warming will pose a serious threat to their way of life during their lifetime.

 

To some degree, these differences in attitudes reflect that Democrats, who tend to be more likely express concern about climate change, are also more likely than Republicans to say they have been the victim of extreme weather, 45% to 20%. 

 

However, even when respondents' partisanship is taken into account, victims of extreme weather are more likely than nonvictims to express concern about climate change. In most cases, there is a double-digit gap in climate-change attitudes between victims and nonvictims within each party group.

 

For example, 79% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who have personally been affected by an extreme weather event worry a great deal about global warming, compared with 60% of Democrats who have not had such an experience. Republicans and Republican leaners are far less likely to be concerned about global warming, but there is a 15-percentage-point gap in concern between Republicans who have (28%) and have not (13%) experienced extreme weather.”

 

These findings build on a lot of prior research linking extreme weather experiences to deepened concern about climate change, including this Yale study from last year.

 

It’s important to remember that, for most Americans, climate change is an intimidatingly complex issue. In this same Gallup poll, for example, just 27% of Americans say they understand the issue of global warming “very well.” Tying climate change to concrete examples that people can see and feel in their own local areas can therefore be critical for persuading them about the reality and seriousness of the problem.

 

Climate Nexus + Yale + GMU

Voters overwhelmingly agree that it is “more important than ever for the United States to become less dependent on fossil fuels” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but high support for increasing fossil fuel production in the short term shows that voters are feeling cross-pressured on the issue amid the current energy crisis (Release, Topline)

 

Recent polling has shown that voters are receptive to arguments about the need to accelerate the clean energy transition in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the dangers that the war has exposed about the United States’ dependence on fossil fuels.

 

In that vein, this new poll from Climate Nexus in conjunction with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason Center for Climate Change Communication finds that voters broadly agree on the need to shift to a cleaner and more energy independent future that will protect the United States from global shocks like the war in Ukraine:

• 75% agree with the statement that “the primary goal of U.S. energy policy should be achieving 100% clean energy”
• 71% agree with the statement that “it is more important than ever for the United States to become less dependent on fossil fuels such as oil and gas because of the spike in gasoline and natural gas prices that have been caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine”
• Majorities agree that increasing production of renewables would be better than increasing production of fossil fuels for energy independence (59%-35%), national security (55%-35%), and job creation (53%-36%)

 

At the same time, however, voters are clearly feeling squeezed by high gas prices (54% are “very worried” about the price of gasoline) and the public is accordingly willing to accept several proposed remedies aimed at alleviating the energy crisis - including increasing the domestic production of fossil fuels. When they are proposed as policies to respond to the spike in gasoline and natural gas prices, majorities support both increasing the production of renewable energy in the United States (72% support / 18% oppose) and increasing the production of oil and gas in the United States (70% support / 18% oppose).

 

The poll therefore paints a bit of a mixed picture, with voters overwhelmingly agreeing that it’s more important than ever to transition away from fossil fuels but also wanting the U.S. to ramp up energy production of all varieties in the short term. 

 

The poll also reiterates a key finding about how voters react very differently to different terms to describe gas. Providing further evidence that advocates should retire the term “natural gas” in favor of “methane gas,” the poll finds that voters have overwhelmingly positive opinions about “natural gas” as an energy source (76% favorable / 16% unfavorable) and mixed-to-negative attitudes about “methane” as an energy source (32% favorable / 36% unfavorable).