41% of Americans in a recent (10/2023) Pew poll think that climate change will cause very little effect in their area over the next 30 years. 7% think climate change will make their area better and another 10% say that climate change will have no effect. This adds to 58% who would have near 0 reason to support a robust climate policy.
By region the Midwest numbers add up to 69%, the Northeast to 61%, the South to 57%, and the West to 48%. 51% in the West think that climate will be worse in the next 30 years.
46% think that humans have a great deal of effect on climate and 20% think that natural patterns are having a low effect on climate.
32% think that climate scientists understand very well whether or not climate change is occurring. 48% think climate scientists have the right amount or too much influence in public policy debates about addressing global climate change. 37% care a great deal about the issue of climate change. (Of that 37%, as a wild guess, at least 3% think that climate change has very little or nothing to do with humans. LS) For context; note that 39% (Pew November 2022) think that we are in “The End Times. That belief tends to deselect for climate action/conversion to a renewable/sustainable civilization and all the efforts and sacrifices from BAU that would entail.
For context; 25% of adults think the sun orbits the earth in a 2 possible answer question since at least the 1980s. A random guess is 50/50 thus very likely less that 75% know the correct answer.
53% are suspicious of the people and groups pushing for climate action. 33% are annoyed there is so much attention to the climate issue.
The sampling error is plus or minus 1.6% LS
About 22% think that evolution is a fact, and it is not directed by a deity. 40% believe that God created humans less than 10,000 years ago. Data from a 2019 Gallup poll. LS