The Earth’s Climate Is Changing. Does That Matter to the People Who Live on it?

Studies suggest that most Americans believe climate change is real. But that doesn’t mean reversing it is high on their list of political priorities.

Photo: New York Public Library

Though attitudes about the causes of climate change are still starkly divided along partisan lines, Americans largely agree that global temperatures are rising, and that the government is not doing enough to stop them. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that 67% of Americans believe President Trump is not doing enough to deal with the effects of climate change, along with nearly 40% of Republicans. But as we approach a national election, is addressing this potentially planet-altering phenomenon a real priority to voters?

“Climate Change” is one of 34 items on our list of Political Issues That Matter the Most Right Now, where nearly 11,000 people have cast their votes. As of Earth Day 2020, this is what we can tell you about how high this issue sits on voters’ lists of priorities.

---

It’s a High Priority — But Could Be Higher

Gun control is one of seven issues that appear higher on readers’ list of priorities than climate change.

Photo: Flickr

Climate change sits at #9 on the list, with 2,313 upvotes and 1,104 downvotes. Given that this issue is important to 66% of readers and is in the Top 10 of a fairly comprehensive list, that’s encouraging.

Still, issues like free speech, abortion, and immigration are important to a significantly larger portion of readers. Climate activists argue that the challenges posed by increased immigration will only get worse if people are forced to leave their home countries due to flooding, drought, and other phenomena associated with climate change. Whether or not this argument is correct, these results suggest that those who are concerned about the effects of climate change have a long way to go in convincing the greater public.

---

It’s Significantly More Important to Women Than to Men

Photo: Pexels

65% of female voters voted climate change up on this list, ranking it above both equal pay and abortion, while less than half of men did the same. That’s consistent with a 2018 Gallup poll, which found that women are generally more likely to both believe that climate change is real and be concerned about its effects.

---

It Tends to Generate More Interest During Election Years

NOTE: This graph maps the position of climate change on our Political Issues That Matter the Most Right Now list. Keep in mind that the graph is a little counterintuitive, as a trend upward in this line actually indicates that climate change has gone down on the list (because the most important issues start at #1). For example, though the line graph goes up from 2017 to 2018, it means that climate change actually went down on our list that year, falling from #6 in January 2017 to #10 in January 2018. A line trending upward means the issue is becoming less important, while a line trending downward means voters are taking it more seriously. Get it? Got it? Good.

Back in 2015, climate change was a far smaller priority to American voters. From August to December of that year, it was largely contained to the area between #18 and #23 on this list. But that trend started to reverse as 2016 began — as you can see from the chart below, climate change cracked the Top 10 as early as January 2016. By March, it was at #3. In the days leading up to the election in November, it was the #1 most important issue to Ranker readers.

Since that point, climate change has been steadily losing ground. It was down to #10 by December of 2017, and at the same time in 2018, it was at #12. But as we approach another election, climate change is again staging a comeback, slowly climbing up four spots on the list in the last two years. Only time will tell if the 2020 general election will put more focus on the topic.

---

Opinions Vary Across the U.S. — And the World

Our data suggests that although climate change matters to a majority of people, exactly how important it is to voters depends on where they’re from. The Midwest ranked climate change higher on the list than any other region of the country, while the South ranked it lowest.

We found that Americans living in Blue States (states that tend to vote Democratic) are far more likely to rank it highly than Red States (those that tend to vote Republican). Still, there were some surprising outliers in our state-by-state data: for instance, it was rated as the #1 most important issue to voters who live in Arkansas.

Voters in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin ranked climate change as one of the top five most important facing the country. In Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington, on the other hand, climate change was either not in the top 20 most important priorities to voters, or not cited at all.

The data we were able to collect from voters in other parts of the world suggests that Americans take climate change more seriously than those living in most other countries, including Australia, Canada, and Germany. Only in India were voters more likely to cite climate change as a higher priority.

---

What Does It Mean?

Climate policy in America, as well as in other countries with high carbon emission rates like India and China, is unlikely to change unless voters demand that leaders set more aggressive goals for reducing greenhouse gases. The fact that the climate becomes more important to voters during election years is therefore encouraging if you’re of the opinion that human-made climate change poses a real threat to the country. Still, it seems that those who advocate for stronger environmental policies have a lot of work to do to convince the rest of America how important this issue is all year round, not just during election season. 

But there’s plenty of reason for climate change activists to hope — the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an amazing reduction in energy usage and carbon emissions, and stories about these environmental benefits are voted as the best bits of good news to arise from this pandemic. It’s clear that Americans and people all around the world care about the environment. It’s likely just a matter of convincing people that the environment can be saved if they are willing to pressure their representatives in government.

---

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.