Most Americans don’t believe government is doing enough to combat climate change: poll

Nearly two-thirds of Americans don’t believe the government is doing enough to combat climate change, according to a new poll.

The study also revealed that Americans are overwhelmingly unaware of new legislation touted by democratic lawmakers as a milestone victory in the battle against the ongoing climate crisis.

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in August, allowed for the largest investment in the fight against climate change by any one nation ever in a single push. At the heart of the bill — which passed without a single Republican vote in either chamber — is $350 billion in incentives intended to spur investors into accelerating their expansion into clean energy like wind and solar power as well as speeding up the transition away from oil, coal and gas.

Flares burn at the Shell Norco Manufacturing Complex on Aug. 31, 2021, in Norco, La. Each ton of carbon dioxide that exits a smokestack or tailpipe is doing far more damage than what governments take into account, researchers conclude in a scientific paper published Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. (Gerald Herbert/)

Biden’s government has spent millions boosting the bill in the weeks leading up to November’s mid-terms — but an estimated 61% of U.S. adults still said they know little to nothing about the measure, according to a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

When made aware of the sweeping legislation, about 49% of Americans said they believed it wouldn’t make much of a difference in the battle against climate change. Another 33% believed it would help while 14% thought it would actually do more to hurt the efforts.

Giselle Barker, 14, top, and Azuri Brown, 15, listen to speakers for the Global Climate Strike protests in New York on Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (Brittainy Newman/)

Leah Stokes, an environmental policy professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was not surprised to hear the law has not yet registered with the public, despite massive media coverage when it was debated in Congress, approved and signed by Biden. She noted the law “delivered in a big way on climate,″ but that it still “takes time to explain it,″ especially because most of the provisions have not yet kicked in.

Overall, 62% of U.S. adults say the government is doing too little to reduce climate change, while 19% say it’s doing too much and 18% think it’s doing exactly enough.

With News Wire Services