The incoming Trump administration may be packed to the gills with those who deny the fact or relevance of climate change—with Trump himself repeatedly tweeting that global warming is a “hoax”—but the majority of Americans across the political spectrum still want the government and the private sector to take action to get a grip on our industry-driven climate crisis.
A new survey of 1,226 Americans, “Climate Change in the American Mind,” was conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication between November 18 and December 1. The stated margin of error is placed at 3 percent.
Among the findings reported in the report, Politics & Global Warming, November 2016, are:
- Seven in ten registered voters (69%) say the U.S. should participate in the international agreement to limit climate change (the Paris COP21 agreement), compared with only 13% who say the U.S. should not.
- Two-thirds of registered voters (66%) say the U.S. should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of what other countries do.
- A majority of registered voters want President-elect Trump (62%) and Congress (63%) to do more to address global warming.
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A majority of registered voters say corporations and industry should do more to address global warming (72% of all registered voters; 87% of Democrats, 66% of Independents, and 53% of Republicans).
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Nearly eight out of ten registered voters (78%) support taxing global warming pollution, regulating it, or using both approaches, while only one in ten opposes these approaches.