Will global warming impact your life? Results from poll break 28-year record

Brendan Rascius, The Charlotte Observer on Apr 16, 2025

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A record-high share of Americans now consider global warming to be a major concern, according to a new poll.

In the latest Gallup survey, 48% of respondents said global warming will pose a “serious threat” to them or their way of life during their lifetime — the highest share recorded since 1997, when the question was first asked.

It marks a 4-point increase from 2024, when 44% of poll respondents called global warming a serious threat. In the years before that, this figure held steady in the mid-40s after rising from the mid-30s in the 2010s.

Still, 51% said they don’t believe global warming will constitute a major threat in their lifetime, marking the lowest such share on record.

The results of the poll — which sampled 1,002 U.S. adults March 3-16 — broke other records as well.

A majority of respondents, 63%, said the effects of global warming have already begun, outpacing the previous all-time high of 62%, registered in 2017. Meanwhile, a record-low 23% of respondents said the effects of rising temperatures will manifest in the future, and 12% said the effects will never happen.

But, while many Americans express concern about the impacts of global warming, a growing share believes news organizations overstate its importance.

Forty-one percent of respondents said news outlets generally exaggerate the seriousness of global warming, which is up from 37% in 2024. It is the highest such share since 2015, when 42% of poll respondents said the media inflates the importance of global warming.

At the same time, 38% of respondents in the latest poll said news outlets generally underestimate the seriousness of global warming and 20% said they are generally correct.

Further, global warming ranked among the least concerning environmental issues, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Forty percent of respondents said they personally worry a great deal about global warming or climate change. The same share said they worry a great deal about the extinction of animal and plant species, the loss of tropical rain forests and air pollution.

Larger shares said they had a great deal of concern about the pollution of drinking water (54%); pollution of rivers, lakes and reservoirs (51%); and the management of waste in the U.S. (41%).

The poll comes as global temperatures have risen significantly in recent decades. In fact, 2024 was the warmest year on record, breaking the previous record set in 2023, according to NASA.

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