Americans' Interest in Climate News 2020
Provided by: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication|Published on: April 27, 2021|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Type: Data, Graphs, and Maps
Subjects: Civics
Authors: Edward Malbach, Xinran Wang
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This interactive graph shows Americans' interest in climate news by state, congressional district, or county.
- The resource includes a description of the data, methodology, and the survey questions used.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- This resource provides a way for students to see how the desire to hear about climate change depends on location in America.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should have a basic understanding of global warming.
Differentiation
- After using the resource, students could poll people in their community on how interested they are in climate news and see how the results compare.
- Students can work in small groups to answer the following questions:
- What surprised you about this data?
- What didn't surprise you?
- How does geography impact this data?
- Only adults over 18 were polled. If the scientists interviewed high school students, how do you think this data would change?
- How do you think this data would change if the researchers used the term climate change instead of global warming?
This resource presents data on the public interest in climate news and stories in the USA using a multilevel regression with post-stratification to model the national survey dataset. The 999 bootstrap simulations used to visualize the data showed a 95% confidence level indicating the accuracy of the entire dataset on public interest in climate stories to inform better decision-making, policies, and education initiatives. There is no contradiction in the concepts or methods used, thus, this resource is recommended for educators to teach their grade students about the variability of public interest in climate stories.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
Learn about our review process →
