2026/04/28 by Julia Fine, Joshua Ettinger, Hilyatuz Zakiyyah +9 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Risk Perception and Management #Climate Change and Health Impacts
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2752-5309/ae65cd
openalex publication_date 2026/04/28 · openalex created_date 2026/05/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/19
Abstract As climate change increasingly harms public health, these impacts have potential to catalyze stronger public support for policies that protect the climate and public health. Prior research has examined Americans’ views about the health harms of climate change, but the current state of Americans’ views is unknown. This article presents a longitudinal comparison based on a 2014 study, mapping public perceptions among politically partisan audiences. We analyzed data from a 2024 nationally representative sample of U.S. adults ( N = 1013), comparing it to previous nationally representative surveys conducted in 2014 ( N = 1275) and 2018 ( N = 1114). Relative to 2014, we find that in 2024 more Americans are able to identify specific health harms caused by climate change (+5%). They are also more aware that climate change is harming other Americans’ health (+8%); various health harms will become more common in their communities over the next 10 years (+26%); the health impacts of climate change will disproportionately harm certain communities (+13%); and that natural gas harms health (+8%). They are also more trusting of various sources of information about climate and health, especially their primary care doctors (+11%), and more supportive of federal agencies increasing their efforts to protect people from the health harms of climate change (+7%). However, more Americans now incorrectly believe that wind (+9%) and solar (+7%) harm health. These increases in Americans’ awareness of climate and health are driven largely by Democrats, with Republicans’ awareness generally remaining constant or decreasing. We discuss the implications of these results for climate-health communicators and researchers.