Environmental Polling Roundup – March 21, 2025
Headlines
The Economist + YouGov – Most Americans now view Musk negatively, as Americans oppose federal worker layoffs by double digits and few want to see agencies like the EPA or NPS cut [Topline, Crosstabs]
Yale + GMU – Americans’ worries about climate change have intensified over the past decade [Article]
Key Takeaways
There remains little public appetite for cutting environmental agencies. The Economist and YouGov find that Elon Musk and his efforts to downsize the federal government are increasingly unpopular. Musk’s favorability is now deeply underwater, Americans oppose the recent layoffs of federal workers by a double-digit margin, and few want any kind of cuts to the EPA (just 24%) or the National Park Service (only 11%).
Importantly, Americans are also expressing these sentiments in vivid ways – including combative town hall meetings where constituents are demanding that Republican lawmakers rein in DOGE. While the general chaos in D.C. can make it difficult for environmental advocates to break through the noise with our own messaging, it’s important that we tap into this grassroots backlash and collaborate with broader anti-DOGE efforts in order to protect environmental priorities.
Americans’ concerns about climate change are intensifying. At the surface level, Americans’ climate attitudes can appear quite static. For the past several years, stable majorities have recognized that climate change is happening (typically around 70-75%) and that it’s driven by human activities (typically around 55-60%). However, these topline numbers obscure important trends – such as the increasing political polarization on the topic as well as increases in the intensity of people’s beliefs.
A new analysis by Yale and GMU, using their “Six Americas” segmentation framework, finds that the “Alarmed” segment – the Americans who are most worried and engaged about climate change – has increased substantially over the past decade (from 15% of the population to 26%). Meanwhile, the (small) percentages of Americans who doubt or dismiss the problem have barely changed.
These findings have important implications for climate persuasion. While it’s very difficult to change the minds of people who deny that climate change is real or serious, Yale and GMU’s data shows that the vast majority of Americans do recognize the reality of climate change and that there is a lot of opportunity to deepen their engagement with the issue and spur them to take action.
Good Data Points to Highlight
- [DOGE/Cuts] Americans oppose DOGE’s recent layoffs of federal workers by a 12-point margin (38% support / 50% oppose) [The Economist + YouGov]
- [DOGE/Cuts] Only 24% of Americans want the EPA to be reduced or eliminated, compared to 32% who want the EPA to be expanded and 35% who want its funding to be kept the same [The Economist + YouGov]
- [DOGE/Cuts] Only 11% of Americans want the National Park Service to be reduced or eliminated, compared to 30% who want the NPS to be expanded and 49% who want its funding to be kept the same [The Economist + YouGov]
Full Roundup
The Economist + YouGov – Most Americans now view Musk negatively, as Americans oppose federal worker layoffs by double digits and few want to see agencies like the EPA or NPS cut [Topline, Crosstabs]
Most Americans now have unfavorable opinions of Musk. Public opinion about Musk continues to slide deeper into negative territory, as he is now 12 points underwater in his favorability (41% favorable / 53% unfavorable).
Americans also have strongly negative opinions of Musk, with 42% saying that they feel “very” unfavorably about him.
Americans’ ratings of Musk continue to track closely with their feelings about Trump, as Musk is overwhelmingly popular among 2024 Trump voters (80% favorable / 16% unfavorable) and widely detested by 2024 Harris voters (13% favorable / 84% unfavorable). Despite this close correlation, however, Musk is notably less popular than Trump – whose own favorability is split more closely (46% favorable / 51% unfavorable).
Americans oppose federal worker layoffs by double digits. Nearly half of Americans (46%) say that the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the budgets and staff of federal agencies have “gone too far,” compared to just 17% who say that these budget-cutting efforts haven’t gone far enough.
Recent layoffs of federal workers are particularly unpopular, as Americans oppose these layoffs by a 12-point margin (38% support / 50% oppose). Intensity is also overwhelmingly on the side of those who oppose federal staffing cuts, with 39% strongly opposing the layoffs and just 22% strongly supporting them.
Attitudes about the federal layoffs are naturally very polarized, with 88% of Democrats opposing them and 73% of Republicans supporting them. Independents, meanwhile, oppose the layoffs by an 18-point margin (31% support / 49% oppose).
These findings are consistent with other polling about DOGE and federal funding cuts, as those who oppose the cuts tend to feel much more strongly than those who support them and independents have consistently sided more with Democrats than with Republicans on the topic.
Few Americans want to see cuts to the EPA or NPS. In asking about several agencies that have been targeted by Trump and DOGE, The Economist and YouGov find that only around one-quarter of Americans want to see the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reduced or eliminated (24%) and only 11% want to see the National Park Service (NPS) reduced or eliminated (11%).
Pluralities say that funding should be kept the same for the EPA (35%) and NPS (49%). Additionally, more Americans want funding increased for both the EPA (32%) and NPS (30%) than want their funding decreased.
Consistent with their previous polling, The Economist and YouGov find that considerably more Americans want to cut or eliminate DOGE itself (43%) than any of the agencies that it’s attacking.
Yale + GMU – Americans’ worries about climate change have intensified over the past decade [Article]
Since 2009, Yale and GMU have been segmenting Americans into six different groups based on their responses to a series of survey questions about global warming. The groups, as defined by Yale and GMU, are as follows:
“The Alarmed are the most worried about global warming and the most likely to support and engage in pro-climate action.
The Concerned are also worried about global warming, but view it as a less urgent threat and are less motivated to act.
The Cautious are uncertain and not very worried about global warming and are less motivated to take action.
The Disengaged are disconnected from the issue and rarely hear about it.
The Doubtful question whether global warming is happening or human-caused, and are not worried about it or motivated to act.
The Dismissive reject the idea that global warming is happening and human-caused, do not believe global warming is a threat, and oppose climate action.”
In this new article, Yale and GMU analyze changes in the relative sizes of these segments over the past 10 years. The most striking trend has been the increase in the “Alarmed” contingent – those who are the most worried and engaged about climate change. Since 2014, the “Alarmed” group has increased from 15% to 26% of the U.S. population.
Meanwhile, over the past decade, there have been slight decreases in the “Concerned” segment (from 32% to 28%) and the “Cautious” segment (from 23% to 18%). Based on Yale and GMU’s previous research that looked at answers from the same respondents over time, these changes likely reflect that those who were once in the middle of the spectrum are gradually trending toward the “Alarmed” as their worries about climate change intensify.
The percentage of Americans who fall in the lower categories – “Disengaged”, “Doubtful”, or “Dismissive” – has been relatively static. Taken together, these three segments shrank slightly from 29% of the population in 2014 to 27% now.
Altogether, these findings indicate that the primary change in Americans’ climate beliefs over the past decade has been intensification: while it remains very difficult to turn doubters into believers, the vast majority of Americans are worried about climate change and their concerns are deepening over time.
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