After a Shocking Global Summer: Public Alarm on Climate Change at New High
September 27, 2021
Timely new survey on climate awareness from Tony Leiserowitz and colleagues at Yale. Higher than ever after a shocking global summer.
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication:
We have just completed our latest nationally representative Climate Change in the American Mindsurvey and find that American views about climate change have shifted significantly in the past 6 months.
The results are timely, as members of Congress are currently deciding whether to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger reconciliation bill, both of which will make major national investments in climate action. Meanwhile, in 2021 the United States has experienced a brutal year of extreme weather events, including record-setting heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods.
Americans’ belief that global warming is happening has increased six percentage points since March. Americans who think that global warming is happening now outnumber those who think it is not happening by more than 6 to 1.
And for the first time, a majority of Americans now say that people in the United States are being harmed “right now” by global warming.

Please stay tuned, as we will release a short report on public support for climate action soon. We will also release a full report on public climate beliefs and attitudes in coming weeks.
September 28, 2021 at 5:26 pm
Good news, I hope that means more support to action and less negative NIMBYism. Another survey points to agreement across generations. Is there still hope at this very late hour ?
“Older people are just as likely as younger people to recognise the need for action on climate change and to say they’re willing to make big sacrifices to protect the environment, suggesting claims of a generational divide over the future of the planet may be exaggerated.”
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/generational-divide-over-climate-action-a-myth-study-finds