Americans' Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in November 2013

Jan. 16. 2014: Today the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication released the first report from their latest national survey. In Americans’ Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in November 2013, the partners report that there has been an increase in the proportion of Americans who believe global warming is not happening (23%, up 7 percentage points since April 2013). The proportion of Americans who say they “don’t know” whether or not global warming is happening has dropped 6 points – from 20% to 14% percent – since spring of 2013. Finally, a majority of Americans (63%) believe global warming is happening, a number that has been consistent since spring 2013.
 
Other findings:

• Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe global warming – if it is happening – is caused mostly by human activities, while 37% believe that global warming is due mostly to natural changes in the environment. 
• More Americans believe that most scientists think global warming is happening than believe there is a lot of disagreement among scientists (42% versus 33% respectively). However, few Americans (22%) correctly estimate that more than 80% of climate scientists think global warming is happening (in reality, more than 97% of climate scientists agree).
• About half of Americans (53%) say they are “somewhat” (38%) or “very worried” (15%) about global warming.
• Asked how strongly they feel specific emotions when thinking about global warming, a majority says they are strongly or moderately interested in the subject (59%).
• Fewer than half strongly or moderately feel any of the other emotions asked about, and relatively few say they feel angry (35%), afraid (35%), guilty (26%), or depressed (24%) when thinking about global warming.
• Global warming evokes the strongest emotional responses among the Alarmed and Concerned. Large majorities within both groups say they feel “moderately” or “very” interested in global warming (96% and 81% respectively).
• Majorities of the Alarmed report that they feel afraid (85%), sad (81%), angry(79%), and disgusted (76%), while the Concerned feel primarily helpless (61%),sad (59%), and disgusted (56%), but also hopeful (56%).
• The Dismissive also report negative emotions regarding global warming, including disgusted (30%) and angry (24%), though this is likely due to their frustration that the topic – which many of them view as a hoax – receives so much attention.

The report includes an Executive Summary and reports trends in key indicators over the past several years. It can be downloaded here:
 
Climate Change in the American Mind: Americans’ Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in November 2013