In June, 2015, Pope Francis, in his encyclical on the environment, called upon humanity to take responsibility for the planet, including climate change. Yet millions of Americans (37%) just do not trust scientists warning of a 95% certainty humans cause global warming.
Responding to the climate threat will take an all-hands-on-deck approach that combines policies at the national level with coordinated actions by state and local governments. To support climate policy-making, climate scientists create detailed models of climate change risks at the local level.
The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication created a climate opinion map, an interactive online tool supported by a peer-reviewed scientific article published in Nature Climate Change. The map provides estimates of what Americans believe about climate change, their perceptions of climate risks and support for policy options, with breakdowns for all 50 states, 435 congressional districts, and 3,000-plus counties in the U.S.
Nationally, an average of 63% of adults believe global warming is happening, the study shows. County-level estimates of belief that global warming is happening range from a low of 43% in Trimble County, Kentucky to a high of 80% in New York County, New York. Based on the map, these are the states where the fewest number of people agree that global warming is happening, followed by the states where the most people agree it is happening.
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