Poll Shows Americanās Still Rank Climate Change as a Low Priority
Gallup Inc. is widely recognized as one of the foremost polling and advisory companies. It regularly conducts public policy surveys asking participants, often registered voters, broken down by gender, income levels, political party affiliation or leanings, and education levels, to describe what they feel are the top public policy issues or concerns, often ranking them.
Gallupās surveys have asked about climate change as an issue for decades. While a majority or near majority of participants have pretty consistently ranked climate change as an issue of concern, they have, over the years, consistently ranked it as last or near last among the top issues of concern.
Gallupās annual survey in 2024 polled a random sample of 1,016 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, delivering a sampling error of Ā±4 percentage points.
Gallupās 2024 Earth Day poll is consistent with past surveys. Gallup found that 42 percent of Americans surveyed worry āa great dealā about global warming or climate change, with another 20 percent worrying āa fair amount.ā
Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed believe global warming has already begun to happen, but a majority (55 percent), also do not think it will pose a serious threat in their own lifetime.
When ranked against other issues confronting the nation, as Gallup states: āEnvironmental Worries Lag Behind Economic and Social Issues,ā which is also consistent with past surveys. And all of this is despite nearly two decades of climate alarm propagandizing in the mainstream media.
āAmong the leading issues confronting the nation, the environment ranks as a lesser public concern, with 37% saying they worry a great deal about environmental quality,ā Gallup reports.
In fact, worry about a quality environment tied for 11th place with āthe availability and affordability of energy,ā out of the 14 issues of concern Gallup listed. Only race relations and unemployment at 35 percent and 33 percent, respectively, ranked lower. By contrast, more than 50 percent of those surveyed said that they worry a great deal about inflation, crime and violence, hunger and homelessness, the economy, affordable health care, and government spending. Concern about illegal immigration, drug use, the social security system, and the possibility of a terrorist attack all also ranked above concern about a quality environment.
Of course, climate change is just one environmental challenge lumped together under the category āquality of the environment.ā When various environmental issues were polled individually, poll participants said pollution of drinking water; pollution of rivers, lakes, and streams; and contamination of soil and water by toxic waste were each more worrying to them than climate change. And this response comes despite the fact those topics collectively are rarely discussed by politicians, and never as an existential threat to human life, and get a fraction of the coverage climate change does.
Interestingly, Gallup reported in 2023 that concern about various environmental issues, while rising and falling year to year, has declined overall since 2000, when Gallup first started breaking down environmental issues. The number of people saying they are very worried about climate change fell from a high of 46 percent in 2020, and now sits just two points above the level of concern participants displayed when they were first asked about it in the annual poll in 2000.
Sources: Gallup;
Gallup
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