Abstract

Some groups are more at risk than others due to the significant negative effects that global warming has on human health. The amount of public awareness of these risks is unclear; the scant research that has been done so far has produced contradictory results. The understanding of the health effects of global warming among Americans, their levels of support for government spending and action on the matter, and their confidence in information sources are all discussed in this essay. We also look into the disparity between assessments based on open-ended versus closed-ended questions in previous research findings. In October 2014, an online national sample of US adults was surveyed. General attitudes and beliefs regarding global warming, an affective assessment of health implications, vulnerable groups and specific health conditions, perceived risk, confidence in sources, and support for government action were all factors measured. The majority of respondents (61%) stated that they had either given little or no thought to how global warming would damage people's health before to taking the survey. Many respondents (64%) agreed that global warming is damaging to health in response to a closed-ended question, but few (27%) correctly identified one or more specific types of harm in response to an open-ended question. 33% of respondents to a closed-ended question said that some groups are more affected than others, but only 25% of respondents to an open-ended question could name any communities that were disproportionately affected. Given these findings, it may not be surprising that respondents only showed a limited amount of support for a government response: less than 50% of respondents said that government should be doing more to protect against health harms from global warming, and about 33% said that government should be doing more. The majority of Americans say they are generally aware that global warming can have a negative impact on health, but only a small percentage know exactly what kinds of harm it can cause or who is most likely to be impacted. Perhaps as a result, support for a more extensive public health response is only moderate. Primary care doctors and public health officials seem to be in a good position to inform the public about the importance of climate change for health.