Findings on Climate Change Acceptance

As global warming causes extreme weather events to impact an increasing number of Americans, there has been a shift in the country with the rate of acceptance. While the United States is quite divided on many state of affairs, a study by Project Information Literacy (PIL) showed that the nation is growing more unified in acknowledging climate change. Differences in political orientation all fall to the wayside for most people nowadays when it comes to accepting that climate change truly is happening. There were many that still denied it when it was not a faraway phenomenon, but now it is impossible to look away from it when it is right in their home turf, permeating their lives.

According to the PIL study, 80% of the 6,100 people surveyed said they live in a community that has been affected by extreme weather since 2021. Firsthand experiences with extreme weather have become common in every region of the country. These weather events certainly affect everyone in the same way, no matter what their political affiliation is. Perhaps it was much easier for people to believe climate change is not real when temperatures were not soaring to such heights. But there is little argument against many regions continuing to break high temperature records every year.

The participants of this study were divided into three groups, based on how they respond to climate change and their willingness to stay informed on the matter. The first group, The Engaged, made up 33% of participants and represent those that feel it is their civic duty to stay informed on climate change and will likely take individual action as a response. The second group, The Detached, is made up of individuals who believe climate change is real but do not see it as a pressing issue they will act on. This group made up 47% of participants. The third group was named The Resistant, and this 9% section of participants do not believe climate change is real, thus they do not engage in any news or information related to the topic. The last group making up the missing 10% were called Head and gave answers that were not serious enough to count in the study.

It can be expected that the biggest chunk of participants falls into “The Detached.” Many may be feeling too overwhelmed by the terrifying implications of an escalating climate crisis to know what to do about it or be able to face it as a pressing matter. Those people are simply trying to make it through each day and are perhaps finding themselves in a place of apathy as a response to such a huge issue that is difficult to grasp. At least the study confirmed that the percentage of people currently denying climate change is low. This part of the results is more encouraging, because pure denial is more dangerous than ever now. It seems that the country is slowly coming to a collective understanding of the true magnitude of what we have in store for our future.

The climate crisis appears to many people to be an insurmountable issue and feel that they cannot truly affect the problem with positive changes in any significant way. A study from Yale and from the Pew Research Center came up with the same results as the PIL study, that more people are waking up to the reality of our predicament. The actions taken by individuals may vary along with how much they are truly facing the issues. However, it is a positive step that people are recognizing the issue, and over time, more will act as climate change increasingly looms over everyone.