--- title: What Percentage of Americans Worry About Climate Change? description: New Gallup polling shows concern about the climate is at a near record high in the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/04/14/us-climate-concern-gallup-polling/ author: Simmone Shah article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-04-15T12:59:16.680Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-13T06:52:14.113Z article:section: Climate og:title: What Percentage of Americans Worry About Climate Change? og:description: New Gallup polling shows concern about the climate is at a near record high in the U.S. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/04/14/us-climate-concern-gallup-polling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02e0b24e1d8e28b8/69dea8586ce4538b27334e5e/getty-survey.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: getty-survey.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Percentage of Americans Worry About Climate Change? twitter:description: New Gallup polling shows concern about the climate is at a near record high in the U.S. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt02e0b24e1d8e28b8/69dea8586ce4538b27334e5e/getty-survey.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Do Americans Worry About Climate Change? New Polling Shows Concern Is at a Near Record High > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Simmone Shah](https://time.com/author/simmone-shah/)  ## Simmone Shah Reporter Apr 15, 2026 12:59 PM UTC  A man snowboards without his coat at Breckenridge Ski Resort as temperatures reach into the 50s on March 18, 2026 in Breckenridge, Colorado. A man snowboards without his coat at Breckenridge Ski Resort as temperatures reach into the 50s on March 18, 2026 in Breckenridge, Colorado. Michael Ciaglo—Getty Images  by [Simmone Shah](https://time.com/author/simmone-shah/)  ## Simmone Shah Reporter Apr 15, 2026 12:59 PM UTC Concern about [climate change](https://time.com/section/climate/) is near its highest point in the United States, new polling shows. The American polling company [Gallup](https://news.gallup.com/poll/708050/climate-change-concern-near-high-point.aspx) released its annual environment poll on April 14\. Conducted last month, the survey provides new insights on how Americans are [viewing climate change](https://time.com/7279002/talking-about-climate-change/). Currently, 44% of U.S. adults [worry](https://time.com/7280989/climate-anxiety-mental-health-young-people/) a great deal about [global warming](https://time.com/6589649/climate-despair-how-to-cope/) or climate change, among the highest recorded since 1989—along with 46% measured in 2020 and 45% in 2017.A record low 35% of adults in the U.S. would say they feel positively about the quality of the environment—a decline that has been driven by Independents, whose view has fallen 10 points since last year from 44% to 34%. That’s compared to 63% of Republicans’ rating the quality of the country’s environment as high, and 16% of Democrats, the lowest on record for the group by one point. The drop in confidence “is a pretty big swing, especially since we did not see a change in administration this year,” says Gallup Senior Editor Megan Brenan. The drop in satisfaction from Independent voters is appearing across a number of issues, Brenan notes. “A lot of different topics that we cover have also seen similar drops among Independents in the last year or two,” she says. “I think it's somewhat emblematic of the popularity of the President and how well people perceive the job that he's doing.” ## Do Americans want the government to do more to tackle climate change? The Trump Administration has embraced climate denialism and pursued a number of anti-climate actions since taking office in January 2025\. This past February, the EPA repealed the endangerment finding, the landmark assessment that proved six greenhouse gasses were a threat to human health thus making the legal case for climate policies and regulation. That same month, the EPA also announced that it would [roll back Biden-era pollution standards](https://time.com/7380172/trump-mercury-coal-plant-pollution/), meant to be implemented by 2027, allowing coal-burning plants to release more heavy metals, like mercury and lead. A growing number of people, however, believe that the U.S. government could be doing more when it comes to environmental action, the polling shows. Sixty-three percent of U.S. adults say the government is doing too little— the highest level recorded since Gallup’s initial reading in 1992, and a six-point increase from [last year](https://news.gallup.com/poll/659390/americans-think-doing-little-environment.aspx). ## Is climate change impacting Americans’ lives? Though a near-record high number of Americans (66%) say they feel the environment is worsening—and a strong number of U.S. adults believe the effects of global warming have already begun (61%)—less than half, 45% of those surveyed, believe the effects of climate change will pose a threat to them or their way of life during their lifetime. But despite this finding, around the country the impacts of global warming are already being felt. The U.S. just experienced its warmest March on record, with the average temperature in the contiguous United States[ 9.4°F ](https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/national-climate-202603)above the 20th-century average. And many of the natural disasters seen in the last year have been [supercharged](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/climate/california-fires-climate-change-disasters.html) by our warming planet. Climate change i[ncreased the likelihood](https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-increased-the-likelihood-of-wildfire-disaster-in-highly-exposed-los-angeles-area/) of the wildfires that tore through Los Angeles last January, while so-called “100 year floods” like the one that killed more than 100 people in Texas’s Hill Country last July, are becoming more and more common as the world warms. ## What environmental issue do most Americans care about? The biggest environmental issue of concern for respondents was the pollution of drinking water (according to 56% of those surveyed) and the maintenance of the nation's supply of fresh water (53%); 38% of Republicans said they worry “a great deal” about pollution of drinking water, and 31% said they cared about the maintenance of the nation's supply of fresh water—compared to only 6% of Republicans who feel the same about climate change. This comes as the Colorado River, which supplies water to Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, faces historic water scarcity and a battle over water rights.Record dry conditions are also raising fears of [drought](https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/#:~:text=Drought%20is%20defined%20as%20a,not%20yet%20back%20to%20normal.) in parts of North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. Over time, beliefs about the cause of global warming have [diverged greatly](https://news.gallup.com/poll/474542/steady-six-say-global-warming-effects-begun.aspx) by political party, polling shows. In 2001, 72% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and 52% of Republicans attributed global warming to pollution from human activities. Now, 90% of Democrats, 65% of independents and just 28% of Republicans say this. It highlights how, for many Americans, climate change has persistently been politicized, viewed as a partisan issue rather than one grounded in science. “Since 2001 when we started asking, we've seen these similar patterns among partisans,” says Brenan. “It is definitely very, very polarized.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/14/us-climate-concern-gallup-polling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/04/14/us-climate-concern-gallup-polling/"},"headline":"Do Americans Worry About Climate Change? 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