Most Americans Want to Learn More about Climate Change

AFFILIATIONS: Perkins anD Maibach—Center for Climate ing about climate change, and when the impacts of Change Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, climate change are translated to local weather im- Virginia; GarDiner—NOAA Climate Program Office, Silver Spring, pacts, these experiences guide connections to climate Maryland; Witte—ADNET/NASA-Goddard, Bethesda, Maryland; WarD—Yale Project. [...] Research from the 2016 Climate in public discussion of climate change: while opinions Change in the American Mind (CCAM) reports shows are often regarded as varied and contentious, opin- that 56% of Americans hear about climate change in ions are not science. [...] Thus, such public perceptions are at odds with be important to AMS members because, according the climate science community and the findings of the to the March 2015 CCAM report, three of the four Third National Climate Assessment, which concluded most trusted sources are essentially us: climate sci- that human-caused climate change is happening here entists (70%), other kinds of scientists (64%),. [...] AMS members be achieved by sharing the simple message that because have an opportunity to engage the public and to help a majority of climate change of the past 50 or more supply accurate, unbiased climate change science, years is human-caused, human actions then can be thereby lowering the potential “costs” for everyone. [...] (2015), the Yale Climate Opinion Maps provide obligation, to try to help the public become more local-level public opinion data—including climate knowledgeable about an issue that is reshaping the beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support—in the physical and social world about them.