Abstract
Public opinion on the environment in the 21st century is complicated. Support for anti-pollution policies in the US remains as broad as it was during the ascendancy of the environmental movement around the time of the first Earth Day. This public sentiment is at best a “passive consensus,” characterized by widespread but not very intense public support for strong government action. Regularly eclipsed by such issues as the economy, health care, and terrorism, the environment seldom ranks among the most important problems as perceived by the public. With the growing urgency of the climate crisis, emotional reactions have become more common. A body of scholarship on “climate anxiety,” has documented widespread distress over global warming, particularly among young people. These observations were supported in a ten-year time series of public opinion data collected by the Chapman Survey of American Fears. Between 2014 and 2024, climate change emerged as one of the most feared public problems, breaking into the top ten and then becoming established as one of the most salient fears. As with prior research showing that concern for the environment varies by such traits as age, gender, education, partisanship, and ideology, analysis of the fear survey data revealed similar correlates. However, the rapid ascent of climate change into the higher tier of American fears is a phenomenon that may be explained by a number of factors, including the political context, global events, availability of scientific knowledge about the process of climate change, and the risks.
Presenters
David ShafieAssociate Professor, Political Science, Chapman University, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Human Impacts and Responsibility
KEYWORDS
Climate Anxiety, Climate Change, Public Opinion, Environmental Fears
