This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on federal funding cuts, the Trump administration’s early actions on energy and the environment, and Americans’ concerns about climate change and extreme weather.

Trump’s early actions on climate change and clean energy are unpopular; Americans particularly disapprove of halting wind energy projects, as they believe that stopping clean energy projects will hurt job growth. 57% of Americans oppose the Trump administration’s action to halt new wind energy projects. 57% of Americans agree that the Trump administration will hurt job growth by stopping clean energy projects. 61% of Americans agree that the Trump administration’s plan to increase oil and gas drilling will harm air and water quality. 60% of Americans agree that the Trump administration’s plan to increase oil and gas drilling will increase pollution and harm people’s health. Independents oppose the halting of wind energy projects by a 22-point margin (39% support / 61% oppose), oppose the IRA funding pause by a 20-point margin (40% support / 60% oppose), and oppose the Paris Agreement withdrawal by a 12-point margin (44% support / 56% oppose).

Majorities of Americans continue to say that they’ve been impacted by extreme weather and that climate change was a factor behind it, and most are concerned that climate change will increase property insurance premiums. 72% of Americans recognize that climate change is happening. 72% of Americans who self-report experience with extreme weather in recent years say that climate change was a cause. While Democrats (89%) and independents (72%) overwhelmingly attribute their experiences with extreme weather to climate change, Republicans are more split (43% climate change was a cause / 55% climate change was not a cause). Most also believe that climate change will have a major impact on their lives in specific ways, such as affecting the air quality where they live (65%), their personal health (56%), and the availability of water in their area (55%). Majorities say that they’re either “extremely” or “very” concerned that climate change will increase property insurance premiums for households (59%) and increase energy costs for households (55%).

Some Americans recognize the health harms of global warming, but many do not. Many Americans have thought (32%) or worried (28%) a “great deal” or “moderate amount” about the health harms of global warming, similar to the percentages in 2014. 39% of Americans think Americans’ health is being harmed by global warming “a great deal” or “a moderate amount,” an 8 percentage point increase from 2014. However, only 16% think their own health is being harmed by global warming a “great deal” or a “moderate amount.” 47% of Americans understand that some groups in the U.S. are more likely than others to experience the health harms of global warming, +13 points since 2014. When asked to name groups more likely than others to be affected, Americans most commonly identify low-income people (18%, +12 points since 2014), older adults (7%), people with health conditions (6%), and people of color (6%, +5 points). Most Americans think coal (65%) harms people’s health, and many think natural gas does (38%, +9 points since 2018). 39% of Americans think federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should do more to protect people from health harms related to global warming.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new results from the EPC’s collaborative Community Poll project, a new edition of Yale and GMU’s long-running “Climate Change in the American Mind” study, and new polling on federal tax proposals and the agencies and programs that could be cut.

Steady majorities of Americans continue to say that global warming is happening and caused by humans; Americans connect extreme heat and wildfires to climate change more than other types of extreme weather. 73% of Americans recognize that global warming is happening, including 60% who say that it is caused mostly by human activities. 66% of Americans recognize that global warming is affecting weather in the United States. Roughly half of the country (49%) says that they’ve personally experienced the effects of global warming. The majority (54%) believe that future generations will be impacted “a great deal” by the problem, though only 15% expect that they personally will be harmed a great deal by it. Around two-thirds (66%) say that global warming is affecting the weather in the U.S., which equals the figure that Yale and GMU found last April.

This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on climate impacts, the California wildfires, and disaster preparedness.

Even before the California wildfires, voters overwhelmingly supported government programs to help expand home insurance coverage, help pay for damages from extreme weather events, and invest in disaster preparedness and resilience. 74% of voters support the federal government funding disaster prevention and extreme weather resilience efforts at the community level. 71% of voters support the federal government creating a policy that would pay some of the costs of home insurance for low- and moderate-income households. 68% of voters support the federal government creating a national insurance fund to cover damages from extreme weather events. 67% of voters support the federal government providing home insurance coverage for extreme weather events directly to Americans.

Most voters believe that climate change contributed to California’s recent wildfires. Around three in five voters (58%) believe that climate change contributed to California’s recent wildfires. There is also a dramatic partisan split, with more than four in five Democrats (85%) and the majority of independents (54%) saying that climate change played a role in the wildfires while only 36% of Republicans believe so.

Around half of Americans say that they’ve personally been impacted by climate change, and three in five expect that they’ll be impacted in their lifetimes. 60% of Americans recognize that the world’s climate is changing as the result of human activity, while 24% say that the world’s climate is changing due to natural causes and just 6% deny that the climate is changing. A slight majority (52%) say that they’ve felt the impacts of climate change in their own lives, which is consistent with other public polling as around half the country typically reports having direct experience with climate change. A larger majority (62%) say that they expect to feel the impacts of climate change within their lifetimes. Around three in five Americans (62%) say that climate change is at least “somewhat” responsible for the extent of recent wildfires, including nine in ten Democrats (90%) and the majority of independents (56%) but less than half of Republicans (43%).