Climate Insights 2020: Overall Trends- Surveying American Public Opinion on Climate Change and the Environment

Jon Krosnick and Bo MacInnis August 24 2020, Resources for the Future

A discussion of U.S. attitudes to the climate crisis – downloadable

Introduction

Is concern about the natural environment a “luxury good”? According to one theoretical perspective, people in contemporary societies can afford to worry about protecting the planet’s natural environment only if their basic survival needs have been satisfied. A plausible foundation for such an argument is American psychologist Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” (1943; 1954).