Pew Research just released results from a survey conducted in April of 2022 to gauge Americans’ views on climate change. 

According to the researchers:

Most Americans say the Earth is getting warmer, including a narrow majority (53%) who say it is mostly because of human activity, such as burning fossil fuels. Most also view global climate change as an extremely or very serious problem.

When you break it down by religious views, Evangelical Christians were the group that was least likely to think that human activity was warming the earth (32%), with 31% saying it was due mostly to natural patterns, and 17% saying that there is no solid evidence the earth is getting any warmer. 

Catholics were better: 54% said that the earth was getting warmer because of human activity, while 25% said the earth was getting warmer due to mostly natural patterns and 9% saying that there is no solid evidence that the earth is warming. 

When asked to describe why global climate change is not a serious problem, 21% of Catholics (and 38% of Evangelicals) said that climate change is not too serious or not a serious problem. Members of non-Christian religions and those without any religion “consistently express the highest levels of concern about climate change”. 

Finally, when it comes to voting and climate change:

More than half of registered voters who are religious “nones” (55%) said in a March 2022 survey that climate change would be very important to their vote in the 2022 congressional elections, including seven-in-ten atheists (72%). Fewer Catholic (39%) and Protestant (31%) registered voters said it was a very important issue.

Working together, we can help take care of our common home.  

Paul Litwin