Erick Burgueño Salas
Research expert covering climate change and the water industry
Get in touch with us nowOpinions on the media coverage
As of April 2023, almost three-quarters of respondents in the U.S. believed global warming is happening, the highest public acceptance so far on this matter. With such high concern on the topic comes a myriad of media sources with often diverging opinions, making it hard for viewers to identify who to trust. So far, non-government scientists and educators are the most trustworthy source about climate change in the U.S., closely followed by mainstream media.Even if media outlets are still quite trusted, they can also be a source of misinformation. Around a quarter of news audiences in the U.S. encountered information about climate change they believed to be false on online media, in a way due to a lack of proper fact-checking and the easiness of manipulation by anyone with access to the internet. Conversely, more traditional media like newspapers and the radio were less mined with false information.
Efforts to mitigate climate change
Regarding opinions on what third parties are doing to reduce the effects of climate change, more than two-thirds of people in the U.S. believed that large businesses and companies are doing too little. When asked more precisely about the energy industry, roughly half of respondents answered that the energy sector is not doing enough.Moreover, in regards to strategies to tackle the climate emergency, almost 70 percent of respondents to a 2022 survey affirmed having prior knowledge of climate strategies such as subsidizing renewables and implementing regulations limiting emissions. On more specific policies, like carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, and ETS, only around 40 percent said they were aware of them.
