Americans’ Actions to Limit Global Warming in April 2013

The report finds that while many Americans adopt energy-efficient products and consider environmental impacts in purchasing, direct civic engagement with government officials remains low. There is a notable trend of decreasing confidence in the ability of individual energy-saving actions to substantially reduce global warming.

• Half of Americans (52%) consider environmental impacts at least "occasionally" when deciding whether to purchase a product, with 22% doing so "very consistently" or "often".
• Among environmentally-conscious consumers, the most important product attributes are recyclability (78% say at least "somewhat important"), lack of environmental damage (73%), low resource use (65%), and lack of contribution to global warming (62%).
• A majority of Americans (69%) bought locally grown or produced food and 42% bought organic food in the past 12 months; intentions for the next year are higher, with 79% intending to buy local and 57% intending to buy organic.
• Majorities of Americans intend to purchase energy-efficient appliances and fuel-efficient cars in the future, specifically kitchen appliances (75%), water heaters (71%), air conditioners (68%), furnaces (67%), and cars averaging 30+ mpg (61%).
• Direct civic engagement is low and stable; only 10% of Americans contacted a government official about global warming in the past year, a figure that has remained essentially unchanged since 2008.
• Despite low active engagement, there is latent potential for civic action, as 38% of Americans agree they would be willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to "do the right thing" about global warming.
• Adoption of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) has increased, with 53% of Americans reporting that most or all of their home bulbs are CFLs, up from 40% in November 2008.
• Americans have become less confident since 2008 that individual energy-saving actions can reduce global warming; only 31% believe such actions reduce their own contribution (down 17 points), and 56% believe such actions by most Americans would reduce global warming (down 22 points).

APA

Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., Feinberg, G., & Howe, P. (2013). Americans’ Actions to Limit Global Warming in April 2013. Center for Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/April-2013-Americans-Actions-to-Limit-Global-Warming-2013.pdf

Chicago

Leiserowitz, Anthony, Edward Maibach, Connie Roser-Renouf, Geo≠ Feinberg, and Peter Howe. Americans’ Actions to Limit Global Warming in April 2013. Center for Climate Change Communication, 2013. https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/April-2013-Americans-Actions-to-Limit-Global-Warming-2013.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{leiserowitz2013americans, author = {Leiserowitz, Anthony and Maibach, Edward and Roser-Renouf, Connie and Feinberg, Geo≠ and Howe, Peter}, title = {{Americans’ Actions to Limit Global Warming in April 2013}}, institution = {Center for Climate Change Communication}, year = {2013}, month = apr, url = {https://climatecommunication.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/April-2013-Americans-Actions-to-Limit-Global-Warming-2013.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }