Shock poll deals blow to climate activists
Twenty-five years of aggressive climate change activism have not impacted how Americans feel about the subject, CNN reported on Thursday.
Although scientists have repeatedly debunked claims about an impending Armageddon driven by global warming, the Left maintains that climate change is an “existential threat” to humanity. The Biden administration considered climate change such an imminent danger that it tried to impose electric vehicle mandates on the country, ranked it worse than the Russo-Ukraine war, and viewed it as a matter of national security. In 2022, the Federal Reserve conducted a “climate scenario” simulation with six of the country’s largest banks to manage “climate-related financial risks.” US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army would make the “war against climate change” a priority. In September, the Democratic Party unveiled plans to teach “climate literacy” in schools, a euphemism for climate hysteria.
But that climate hysteria may have dissipated with the former administration, according to new figures that show Americans are no more concerned about climate change than they were in 2000.
“Are Americans afraid of climate change? And the answer is, Americans aren’t afraid of climate change,” CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten said. “Climate activists have not successfully made the case to the American people. I want you to take a look here. ‘Greatly worried about climate change.’ We have data going all the way back since 1989, and look at it then, it was 35%. In 2000, it was 40%. 2020, 46%. In 2025, 40%, which is the exact same percentage as in 2000. Despite all of these horrible weather events. The percentage of Americans that are greatly worried about climate change has stayed pretty gosh darned consistent.”
Enten added that 32% of Americans “often [or] sometimes worry” about climate change, down from 38% in 2006. Just 17% of Americans—including only 27% of Democrats—think climate change will impact their area.
“Look at this, all adults, it’s just 17%. It’s just 17%. The GOP is 6%, Independents is 16%, even Democrats here, it’s just 27% of Democrats who say that climate change will make it harder to stay in our area,” Enten went on. “And I think this is what’s so important. This is across the aisle in terms of the percentage of who will say it’ll be harder to stay in our area.”
Although climate change has been a top issue for Democrats, it has ranked low on the list of problems that everyday Americans care about.
Americans don’t feel threatened by climate change
The survey reported by CNN aligns with previous polls showing a decline in climate alarmism. A poll published in 2023 from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and The Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 74% of Americans believe “climate change” is happening, but most (51%) don’t believe it is man-made. That’s an 11-point drop from 2018, primarily among Democratic and Independent voters.
The poll also showed that most Americans support the installation of power lines to deliver “renewable energy,” but not for themselves. Most Democrat voters and high-income earners expressed support for high-voltage renewable power lines, but it dropped when they were told the power lines would be built near their own homes. The change was smaller among Republicans, only a minority of whom expressed support for the power lines at all.
But the biggest change was how much Americans are willing to pay for climate change. In 2021, most Americans (52%) said they would be willing to pay a $1 “carbon fee.” Just two years later, that number dropped to 38%. The survey found that support for a carbon fee drops the more energy bills are impacted.
Trump admin: ‘It’s nowhere near the world’s biggest problem today’
In February, Energy Secretary Chris Wright dismissed the widely adopted false narrative that the world is in imminent mortal peril from “climate change.”
“Everything in life has tradeoffs, but a warmer planet with CO2 is better for growing plants. The world has been getting greener for decades – 14% more greenery around the planet today than there was 40 years ago,” Wright told Fox Business, adding that “far more people die of the cold than die of the heat.”
“Everything has a tradeoff, but, yeah, there’s pluses to global warming as well as negatives. But the bottom line is it’s nowhere near the world’s biggest problem today, not even close,” he said.
