Climate Insights

Surveying American Public Opinion on Climate Change and the Environment

Date

Aug. 24, 2020

Authors

Resources for the Future

Publication

Data Tool

Reading time

2 minutes

Overview

RFF's Climate Insights data tool examines American public opinion on issues related to climate change—beliefs about existence and threat, as well as public support for government action and specific policy preferences. Every few years, Stanford University Professor Jon Krosnick collaborates with scholars at Resources for the Future to explore American public opinion on these issues through a series of rigorous national surveys of random samples of American adults.

Explore the Data

Climate Insights 2024

Historic Surveys

2020 Climate Insights Survey

The 2020 iteration of the Climate Insights survey polled 999 American adults during the 80-day period from May 28, 2020 to August 16, 2020. Find out more about the survey here and below:

More information about recent surveys can be found below:

July 2018

April 2015

February 2015

January 2015

June 2014

December 2013

Terminology

Since 1997, Stanford University Professor Jon Krosnick has led surveys exploring American public opinion on issues related to global warming, human activity, government policies to address climate change, and more, through a series of rigorous national surveys of random samples of American adults. When this research program began, “global warming” was the term in common parlance. That term was used throughout the surveys over the decades and was always defined for respondents, so it was properly understood. In recent years, the term “climate change” has risen in popularity, so both terms are used in this report interchangeably. When describing survey question wordings and results, the term “global warming” is used, to match the term referenced during interviews. Empirical studies have shown that survey respondents interpret the terms “global warming” and “climate change” to have equivalent meanings (Villar and Krosnick 2011).

Projects

Authors

Resources for the Future

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