Two-thirds of Americans worry about climate change and support action to address it, yet the political and media landscape has shifted sharply away from the issue as Donald Trump pushes an aggressive agenda to expand oil and gas drilling.
The disconnect between public concern and political attention reveals a growing gap in how the climate crisis is discussed in America. Experts say the 2024 election was not a referendum on climate, but rather a sign that voter priorities on the issue remain stable even as other concerns dominate headlines.
"Americans believe in climate change, worry about climate change and support action on climate change," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the climate communication program at Yale University. "That didn't change before, during or after the election."
Yale's long-running climate polling has consistently found roughly two-thirds of Americans express worry about the climate crisis, a proportion that has held steady even as news coverage of inflation, international conflicts, and other issues has surged.
Yet major news organizations are pulling back coverage at a critical moment. The Washington Post, NPR, and CBS have all cut climate journalist positions in recent years, shrinking the media's attention to the issue even as extreme weather events including heatwaves, droughts, and storms continue to strike parts of the country.
"There is this spiral of climate silence," Leiserowitz said. "I've even heard some leaders of climate groups say, 'don't mention climate change.' There's absolutely no evidence that people care about this less than they did."
The erosion of coverage has real political consequences. While voting priorities on climate have remained relatively unchanged, the lack of media attention means the issue competes poorly against topics that dominate the news cycle, allowing other concerns to leapfrog over it in public consciousness.
A majority of Americans have begun linking rising costs in their daily lives to climate impacts. Research published earlier this year found U.S. households are paying between $400 and $900 more annually due to climate-related expenses, with costs reaching over $1,300 in some counties across California, Louisiana, and Florida. These expenses include accelerated home insurance rates and health costs.
"The status quo has a lot of real negative consequences for American households," said Kimberly Clausing, an economist at the UCLA School of Law. "If you live on the Gulf coast or in the rural American west you'd have to be out to lunch to not notice how climate change is affecting you in very real ways."
Trump's attempts to block renewable energy projects and shift policy back toward fossil fuel expansion are broadly unpopular with voters. In March, Trump declared: "I'm proudly telling you that we're going to try and have no windmills built in the United States." His administration has previously called clean energy "the scam of the century" and blocked wind and solar projects, though courts have repeatedly rebuffed these efforts.
This month, Trump's administration distributed $700 million to support coal-fired power plants, which generate deadly air pollution and rank among the leading sources of planet-heating emissions.
Yet only 7% of American voters say they would support a candidate advocating for decreased renewable energy use, Yale polling shows. Just 14% want a candidate pushing for more fossil fuels.
"The president's viewpoint is not shared by most Americans or even most conservative Republicans," Leiserowitz said. "This war on renewables isn't even shared by his own base. Americans have positive views of clean energy and pretty negative views of fossil fuel energy, which they think is dirty and polluting."
The political challenge facing Democrats and climate advocates is formidable. The conventional wisdom that Biden's climate policies were unpopular, despite polling evidence to the contrary, has already deterred public discussion of the issue by potential supporters.
"People on the left know this is a problem and worry about it but think 'why talk about this if I want to win elections?'" Clausing said. "The last guy did something about it and then this happened. It's hard for politicians to get excited about it at the moment."
Climate change has rarely been a headline political issue in America despite worsening impacts, and progress confronting global heating has been erratic. Joe Biden's landmark climate legislation is being unwound by Republicans in Congress. Trump has fired climate scientists and withdrawn the U.S. from international climate agreements, reversing years of diplomatic efforts.
Author James Rodriguez: "The real story here is that Americans haven't changed their minds about climate, but their leaders have stopped talking about it. That's a political choice, not a mandate."
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