Photo by Tobias Rademacher on Unsplash.
"Nearly 3 in 4 Americans (73%) believe the world's climate is undergoing a change leading to more extreme weather patterns and sea level rise," according (PDF) to the latest Monmouth University Poll, prompting Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute to comment, "Most Americans continue to believe climate change is real." Acceptance of climate change is slightly less prevalent than in earlier polls; political affiliation continues to be associated with views on the reality and causes of climate change.
Asked "Do you think that the world's climate is undergoing a change that is causing more extreme weather patterns and the rise of sea levels, or is this not happening," 73% of respondents said yes, 23% said no, and 4% volunteered that they didn't know. Yes answers were more prevalent among Democrats (92%) than Independents (71%) and Republicans (51%), those 18-34 (78%) than those 35-54 (72%) and those 55 or older (70%), and college graduates (77%) than non-college graduates (71%).
Asked "Is climate change caused more by human activity, more by natural changes in the environment, or by both equally," 34% of respondents said more by human activity, 7% said more by natural changes in the environment, 31% said both equally, 0% volunteered that they didn't know, 23% already said that climate change is not happening, and 4% already said that they were unsure whether climate climate change is happening. The same patterns of responses differing by political affiliation, age, and education were present.
According to the report, the poll "was sponsored and conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute from April 18 to 22, 2024 with a probability-based national random sample of 808 adults age 18 and older ... [including] 163 live landline telephone interviews, 349 live cell phone interviews, and 296 online surveys ... For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling has a maximum margin of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points adjusted for sample design effects."
