--- title: Climate Change Education Politics: How Education Views on the Issue description: Around the world, people with higher levels of education are more likely to understand climate change than their less-educated counterparts canonical: https://time.com/3972986/climate-change-education/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-27T15:00:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:24.775Z article:section: Science og:title: Climate Change Education Politics: How Education Views on the Issue og:description: Around the world, people with higher levels of education are more likely to understand climate change than their less-educated counterparts og:url: https://time.com/3972986/climate-change-education/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt770a0180561deff4/69885c942dce015a439e4cc3/climate-change-protest.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4901 og:image:height: 2757 og:image:alt: climate change protest og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Climate Change Education Politics: How Education Views on the Issue twitter:description: Around the world, people with higher levels of education are more likely to understand climate change than their less-educated counterparts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt770a0180561deff4/69885c942dce015a439e4cc3/climate-change-protest.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Factor Predicts What People Think About Climate Change > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Is Climate Change Causing Extreme Weather? [Watch (HLS stream): Is Climate Change Causing Extreme Weather?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/LQufbOt9.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2013-11-11. Is the frequency of extreme weather events a sign that global warming is gaining pace and exceeding predictions? Climate scientist Bill Patzert explains._  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 27, 2015 3:00 PM UTC  Close-up of global warming sign in city Close-up of global warming sign in city Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jul 27, 2015 3:00 PM UTC Around the world, people with higher levels of education are more likely to understand climate change than their less-educated counterparts, according to new research published in the journal _Nature Climate Change_. Using data collected by Gallup from 119 countries, researchers found that education level was a key determinant of climate change risk perceptions in 62% of countries around the world. But all bets are off when it comes to education and views of climate change in the United States, along with a select few English speaking countries. Political party and ideology predicted views of climate change in the U.S., not education alone. (Information on political ideology and climate change beliefs was not available for countries outside the U.S.) “\[For Americans\] just having higher education does not mean that you understand or accept the science,” says study co-author Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. “\[Americans\] who have attained higher education are better at cherry picking evidence that seems to validate what we already believe.” **Read More**: [How the Recession Accidentally Helped the Planet](http://time.com/3966553/recession-emissions-decline/) Overall, different regions had vastly different levels of awareness of climate change. Two-thirds of people in Egypt, Bangladesh and Nigeria, for instance, had never heard of climate change, the study found. Still, many in developing countries who lacked formal knowledge of the concept said they had noticed changes in their local weather patterns indicative of climate change. The lack of climate change awareness in developing countries should be of particular concern because many of those countries have been deemed more vulnerable to environmental changes. “If you don’t know you’re at risk, you’re even more at risk because you can’t possibly be taking the actions to prepare,” says Leiserowitz. Global public awareness about climate change could also play a role in negotiations for a global treaty on climate change at a United Nations conference on the issue later this year. Public support for an agreement will help countries to follow through on commitments made at the summit, Leiserowitz said. “It won’t be some top-down commandment from a legally binding treaty from the UN making everybody do it,” he says. “It’s going to be national dynamics where each government commits to doing this and then they have to get people onboard to support those policies.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Extreme weather was more frequent in recent years. Is it a sign that global warming is gaining pace and exceeding predictions? Now, has extreme weather been more frequent in recent years? The evidence is definitely to the contrary. The United States has always had extreme weather. We look back on our weather history. It's been punishing. Floods, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, great forest fires. Is global warming happening? No doubt about it. We're living in a warmer world. We're living in a melting world, sea levels are rising. Now, direct evidence of the foot print or the finger print of global warming, we're seeing more frequent, more intense and longer lasting heat waves. As far as hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires, floods and drought; the evidence is definitely not in. The consensus among almost all scientists is, is that it's a small finger print, not a large foot print. But what is true is that in this country, in the United States, we live in many areas with great risk to drought, [ NOISE ] to tornadoes, to hurricanes. And so part of the dialog is not only extreme weather and global warming but is the amount of risk we can tolerate. Now, looking to the future, global change, global warming it definitely is accelerating and it will have an impact on extreme weather. But at this point, not much. 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