Global Warming’s Six Americas in 2020

The report identifies six segments of the U.S. adult population based on climate change attitudes: Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive. As of 2020, 54% of Americans are either Alarmed or Concerned, while the Alarmed group has more than doubled in size over five years. Despite this growth, many in the Concerned and Cautious groups still perceive climate change as a future problem rather than a current threat.

• As of 2020, a majority of Americans (54%) are categorized as either 'Alarmed' or 'Concerned', while the 'Doubtful' and 'Dismissive' groups together make up 18% of the population. The Alarmed group (26%) now outnumbers the Dismissive group (7%) by nearly 4 to 1.
• Over a five-year period, the 'Alarmed' segment more than doubled from 11% to 26% of the U.S. adult population, while the 'Dismissive' segment decreased by nearly half, falling from 12% to 7%.
• There is a persistent misunderstanding among the 'Concerned' and 'Cautious' groups, who represent nearly half of U.S. adults, regarding the current impacts of global warming; they tend to view it as a future issue and are often unaware of existing harms to human health, economic disasters from storms and fires, and dangerous weather.
• There is an increasing consensus across political party lines that transitioning to 100% clean energy is the correct path for the prosperity of the United States.

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2020). Global Warming’s Six Americas in 2020. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/global-warmings-six-americas-in-2020/

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Global Warming’s Six Americas in 2020. 2020. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/global-warmings-six-americas-in-2020/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=Global Warming’s Six Americas in 2020 |date=11 October 2020 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/global-warmings-six-americas-in-2020/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2020global, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{Global Warming’s Six Americas in 2020}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/global-warmings-six-americas-in-2020/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }