How Americans View Future Harms From Climate Change in Their Community and Around the U.S.
A majority of Americans believe climate change is causing harm to people in the U.S. today and 63% expect things to get worse in their lifetime.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
A majority of Americans believe climate change is causing harm to people in the U.S. today and 63% expect things to get worse in their lifetime.
Overall, 46% of Americans say the statement “public health officials were unprepared for the outbreak” describes their views extremely or very well, including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats.
The share of Americans who say science has had a mostly positive impact on society has fallen 16 percentage points since before the start of the coronavirus outbreak, from 73% in January 2019 to 57% today.
Americans offer a lackluster evaluation of how the country has balanced priorities during the coronavirus outbreak. Fewer than half say the country has given the right amount of priority to the needs of K-12 students, public health or quality of life.
Trust in scientists and medical scientists has fallen below pre-pandemic levels, with 29% of U.S. adults saying they have a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public. This is down from 40% in November 2020 and 35% in January 2019, before COVID-19 emerged. Other prominent groups – including the military, police officers and public school principals – have also seen their ratings decline.
Large majorities value government investments in science and consider it important for the United States to be a world leader in scientific achievement, but few think the country is gaining ground globally.
Americans are increasingly critical of the response to COVID-19 from elected officeholders and public health officials. Positive ratings of public health officials, such as those at the CDC, have fallen 10 points since August. And 60% of U.S. adults say they’ve felt confused as a result of changes to recommendations on how to slow the spread of COVID-19.
As the Earth’s temperature continues to rise, climate change remains a lower priority for some Americans, and a subset of the public rejects that it’s happening at all. To better understand the perspectives of those who see less urgency to address climate change, the Center conducted a series of in-depth interviews designed to provide deeper insight into the motivations and views of those most skeptical about climate change.
Two-thirds of Americans say the United States should prioritize developing renewable energy sources over expanding the production of fossil fuels.
Here’s what Americans said they learned about the development of vaccines and medical treatments and their advice for handling a future outbreak.
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