Americans are hearing about global warming in the media less frequently

The Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University has released a new report, “Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Spring 2026,” based on our latest national survey, conducted April 17-26, 2026.

Key Takeaways

• 65% of Americans say the issue of global warming is personally important to them.
• 76% of Americans say they are interested in news stories about how global warming is affecting the cost of living.
• However, only 39% of Americans say they hear about global warming in the media at least once a month, and 69% “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friend.

Overall, they find that:

• Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it isn’t by a ratio of more than 4 to 1 (68% versus 16%).
• By a margin of more than 2 to 1, Americans are more likely to think global warming is mostly human-caused (59%) than to think it’s mostly caused by natural changes in the environment (27%).
• 66% of Americans say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming, including 29% who say they are “very worried.”
• 59% of Americans think global warming is affecting weather in the United States, including 35% who think weather is being affected “a lot.”
• 13% of Americans have considered moving to avoid the impacts of global warming.

Additionally, 65% of Americans say the issue of global warming is personally important to them. Relatedly, large majorities of Americans are interested in news stories about global warming, including how it is affecting the cost of living (76%), actions the U.S. government is taking in response to global warming (75%), the causes of global warming (74%), and the impacts of global warming on their local community (74%) and around the world (74%), among many others.

Large majorities of Americans are also worried about climate-related extreme weather events and related impacts in their local area, such as water pollution (79%), diseases carried by mosquitoes and ticks, such as Lyme disease and West Nile Virus (79%), electricity power outages (78%), air pollution (77%), extreme heat (77%), droughts (72%), water shortages (70%), wildfires (63%), and flooding (63%).

However, even though most Americans are interested in hearing about global warming and are worried about its impacts, in recent years, they report a substantial decline in exposure to media coverage and other people talking about it. For instance, 39% of Americans say they hear about global warming in the media at least once a month, a decrease of 18 percentage points from 57% in 2022. Likewise, 17% say they hear people they know talking about global warming, an 8-point drop from 25% in 2022. Additionally, 69% of Americans “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friends, which is the highest percentage in 10 years.

The full report includes many other important results, including Americans’ personal experience with global warming, their perceptions of social norms for taking climate action, and how they conceptualize global warming.

External link