Americans are starting to wake up to the climate crisis. According to a new Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 38% of people now say climate change is a crisis—and while that number is way too low, it’s a big jump from less than 25% five years ago.
All of the right wing’s efforts to fool people about the science on climate change are flopping, too: 79% of people, including 60% of Republicans, understand that humans are causing climate change. Nearly a quarter of Republicans even say they disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling the issue; 67% of people overall disapprove.
The poll found people conflicted about how much they would personally sacrifice to alleviate climate change—nearly half said they’d pay an extra $2 a month but only around a quarter would pay $10 a month—but very accurate on one aspect of how to fight climate change: “clear majorities say they would prefer that climate initiatives be funded by increasing the taxes on wealthy households and on companies that burn fossil fuels.”
The U.S. is not where it needs to be on facing up to the climate crisis, but progress is progress, and it’s clear that Trump and congressional Republicans are out of step.