Public opinion about global warming is an important influence on decision making about policies to reduce global warming or prepare for the impacts, but American opinions vary widely depending on where people live. So why would we rely on just one national number to understand public responses to climate change at the state and local levels? Public opinion polling is generally done at the national level, because local level polling is very costly and time intensive. In collaboration with Peter Howe, Matto Mildenberger, Anthony Leiserowitz, and the YPCCC, we developed a geographic and statistical model to downscale national public opinion results to the state, congressional district, and county levels. We can now estimate public opinion across the country and provide a rich picture of the diversity of Americans’ beliefs, attitudes, and policy support about climate change.
