In the past decade, Americans have become increasingly aware that climate change is harming the health of people in the U.S., according to a new survey. 

The survey, which was conducted in December and released Friday, also shows increased trust in physicians, climate scientists, federal agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency, local public health departments and the World Health Organization for providing information about the health harms of global warming.

These sources of information are under threat: President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed cutting most of the EPA’s budget and initiated mass firings at the CDC, taken downclimate and health information from government websites, frozen or revoked funding for some climate research and interventions, stalled environmental justice initiatives and proposed rescinding a 16-year-old federal finding that mandates government action on greenhouse gases. Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord.

The survey was conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication. Edward Maibach, a principal investigator of the survey, said its results are fundamentally irreconcilable with the actions of the Trump administration.

“If they were engaged in good governing, they would look at what [voters] care about and then try to build a consensus about what they’re doing, and that doesn’t seem to be the way they’re governing,” said Maibach, director of GMU’s Center for Climate Change Communication.

The report found that 39 percent of the country believes that global warming is harming Americans’ health “a great deal” or “a moderate amount,” an 8 percent increase since a previous survey in 2014. Nearly half of Americans also understand that climate-related health harms impact Americans unequally, a 13 point increase. 

The survey also found increasing knowledge about specific health harms from climate change: 37 percent of Americans were able to identify at least one specific climate-related danger— including respiratory problems, extreme heat, pollution and extreme weather events. That’s a 5 percent increase from 2014. 

And a growing share of Americans believe that harms like heat stroke, asthma and lung disease, bodily harm from extreme weather and hunger will be more common in their community over the next 10 years if nothing is done to address global warming.

These health risks are well documented in the U.S. They can strike anyone, but they often disproportionately harm vulnerable communities, including Black, brown, Indigenous and low-income populations, people with disabilities and chronic diseases, children, the elderly and women. Globally, the World Health Organization has estimated that climate change will cause an extra 250,000 annual deaths from 2030 to 2050 from heat stress, malnutrition, malaria and diarrhea alone. 

Maibach said the finding showing increased trust in scientists and researchers on global warming’s health impacts was a surprise, given that trust in health professionals overall plunged after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It bucks the trend of decreasing trust overall,” Maibach said. 

The finding suggests that physicians, first responders and even climate scientists may be particularly effective vehicles for education on climate change and health harms.

For the most part, the survey reflected increased understanding of well-researched threats to human health: 65 percent of Americans believe that coal harms people’s health, and 38 percent believe natural gas does, a 9 point increase since 2018. 

But the survey also found that 15 percent of Americans believe wind energy harms health and 12 percent believe the same about solar power, both increases since 2014.

Claims that wind energy or solar power are harmful to human health are unproven and many have been debunked, but they’re still being made by some government officials, fossil fuel industry groups and media outlets.

Overall, Maibach said the survey results illustrate growing awareness that could bolster efforts to combat global warming.

“The fact that we’re seeing such a strong uptick in public understanding that climate change is harming the health of Americans, we fundamentally are optimistic that that will build the public will for climate action,” Maibach said. 

Keerti Gopal

Reporter, Health and Justice

Keerti Gopal covers intersections between climate change, public health and environmental justice at Inside Climate News. Previously, she covered climate activism and movement repression. She is a National Geographic Explorer and has received fellowships from Fulbright, the Solutions Journalism Network, The Lever, and the National Press Foundation.

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