Americans increasingly understand that climate change harms human health

A comparison of survey data from 2014 and 2020 shows that a significantly larger proportion of Americans now believe climate change will increase health harms in their communities, particularly regarding wildfires, though mental health impacts remain less widely recognized.

• Public awareness of climate-related health risks in the U.S. increased significantly between October 2014 and April 2020, with majorities of Americans now expecting most health impacts identified in the U.S. National Climate Assessment to become more common in their communities, except for mental health conditions.
• The proportion of Americans believing that global warming will lead to more common bodily harm from wildfires in their community increased by 28 percentage points between October 2014 and April 2020, effectively doubling.
• While fewer than half of Americans believe mental health impacts will become more common due to global warming, there was a substantial increase in this belief since 2014, with increases of 14 percentage points for depression and 17 percentage points for severe anxiety.

APA

Kotcher, J., Maibach, E., Rosenthal, S., Gustafson, A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Americans increasingly understand that climate change harms human health. Center for Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/all/americans-increasingly-understand-that-climate-change-harms-human-health/

Chicago

Kotcher, John, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, Abel Gustafson, and Anthony Leiserowitz. Americans increasingly understand that climate change harms human health. Center for Climate Change Communication, 2020. https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/all/americans-increasingly-understand-that-climate-change-harms-human-health/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Kotcher |first1=John |last2=Maibach |first2=Edward |last3=Rosenthal |first3=Seth |last4=Gustafson |first4=Abel |last5=Leiserowitz |first5=Anthony |title=Americans increasingly understand that climate change harms human health |publisher=Center for Climate Change Communication |date=16 June 2020 |url=https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/all/americans-increasingly-understand-that-climate-change-harms-human-health/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{kotcher2020americans, author = {Kotcher, John and Maibach, Edward and Rosenthal, Seth and Gustafson, Abel and Leiserowitz, Anthony}, title = {{Americans increasingly understand that climate change harms human health}}, publisher = {Center for Climate Change Communication}, year = {2020}, month = jun, url = {https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/all/americans-increasingly-understand-that-climate-change-harms-human-health/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }