According to March 13, 2025 data from Yale Opinion Maps, 72% of Americans believe global warming is happening and only 14% do not. (By comparison, in 2022 YouGov reported that 34% of Americans believe UFOs are either alien ships or alien life forms, up from 20% in 1996). Nearly two-thirds (63%) are worried about global warming and 37% are not.

At the same time, climate change is not a top priority for most Americans. According to a February 6, 2023 Report by the Pew Research Center (Pew), only 37% of Americans regard dealing with climate change as a top priority. It is 17^th on a list of 21 priorities, ahead of dealing with global trade (although that’s probably higher now), addressing issues around race, dealing with challenges facing parents, and dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. The top issues are strengthening the economy (75%), reducing health care costs (60%), defending against terrorism (59%), reducing the influence of money in politics (59%), and making Medicare financially sound (58%).

That said, there is a great partisan divide. Dealing with climate change is in the bottom three issues for Republican/Lean Republican (Republican) at 13%, tied with addressing issues around race and just ahead of the coronavirus outbreak at 12%. For Democrat/Lean Democrat (Democrat) the number for climate change is 59%, a gap of 46 points with Republicans. But even for Democrats, climate change only ranks eighth and below protecting the environment at 67%, where there is a 47 point gap with Republicans.

Priorities and Partisan Gaps on 21 Issues Facing Americans | Pew Research Center

I am going to explore these partisan differences in more depth. From this analysis I will make the case that we need a new narrative for how to talk about climate change. Right now it is largely a liberal one. Conservatives aren’t buying it. Independents are somewhere in between. As of September 30, 2024 there were 186.5 million registered voters in the United States; 45.1 million registered Democrats (24.2%) and 36 million (19.3%) registered Republicans for a total of 47% of the total. The rest are registered Independents, undeclared, or no party affiliation. We cannot create the needed long-term, stable, and bipartisan policies to address climate change if it’s a conversation that is only resonating in a big way with one-quarter of the population.

The Causes and Time Frames of Climate Change and Global Warming

According to Yale Opinion Maps, 59% of Americans believe global warming is caused by human activity and 29% do not. Nearly two-thirds (65%) think it’s affecting the weather and only 6% do not. A December 9, 2024, Pew report shows that a sharp partisan divide exists. Whereas 70% of Democrats think that human activity contributes a great deal to global climate change, this is true for only 20% of Republicans. While only 6% of Democrats think human activity contributes not too much or not at all to global warming, this is true for 44% of Republicans.

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