Who Is Taking Actions to Address Climate Change: Prevalence and Correlates of Actions to Address Climate Change in a Nationally Representative U.S. Sample of Adults

Background: Climate change and sustainability are highly interconnected. Addressing climate change requires major social change and collective action. The current study examined the prevalence of, and factors associated with, four climate change activism behaviors in a U.S. nationally representative sample. Methods: Data were derived from the Pew Research Center American Trends Panel conducted in April 2021 of 13,749 panelists. Key outcomes included (1) attending a protest or rally addressing climate change, (2) volunteering for a climate change activity, (3) donating money to an organization focused on climate change, and (4) contacting an elected official to urge them to address climate change. Multivariable logistic regression models examined the independent associations with psychosocial and demographic variables. Results: A fourth (24.7%) of participants reported engagement in one or more climate change activism behaviors. Of those who reported climate change activism, most (54.7%) only engaged in one activity. In the multivariable regression models, individual and social factors were significantly associated with all four climate action outcomes. Factors include social network communications and social norms variables, such as encouragement to take action, criticism for not taking action, and climate change communication frequency. Discussion: This study’s findings indicate that over 41 million U.S. adults reported having donated money to an organization focused on addressing climate change in the prior year, 25 million volunteered, and 26 million contacted an elected official. The association of social and communication variables with climate change activism suggests the importance of training people to talk about and encourage others to engage in climate change activism.