Republican Convention Ignored Climate Threat, but Americans' Attitudes are Shifting
E&E News and Scientific American cite RFF's Climate Insights 2020 survey in their analysis of climate themes under the Trump administration.
"Polling shows that voter concern about climate change has been growing for years and that it has not diminished as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Concern among some voters has spiked during Trump’s tenure. Before the virus, polling showed climate change was the second-most important issue for Democratic primary voters, behind only health care.
Now, responding to the virus and restoring the economy top the list. But the public still wants the federal government to address climate change, recent polling shows.
More Americans than ever—about 25%—view climate change as “extremely personally important,” according to a poll released last week by Stanford University, Resources for the Future and ReconMR. That number is twice as large as it was in 2006, said the poll, which surveyed 1,000 adults between May and August.
It also found that 82% of respondents want the federal government to act on climate change. And three-quarters of those surveyed said they had personally experienced the effects of global warming.
'The COVID-19 pandemic has offered a unique opportunity to learn how people feel about climate change when faced with a global crisis,' said Ray Kopp, vice president of research and policy engagement at Resources for the Future.
'The claim that we can’t do anything about climate change without crashing the economy, or that we need to focus only on the pandemic and not do anything on climate right now, simply doesn’t resonate with Americans,' he said."
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