Vulnerability outpaces climate worry in U.S. frontline communities

  1. Jennifer Paige Carman
  2. Emily Goddard
  3. Manuel Salgado
  4. Seth A. Rosenthal
  5. Jennifer R. Marlon
  6. Kristin Barendregt-Ludwig
  7. Marija Verner
  8. John Kotcher
  9. Edward Maibach
  10. Anthony Leiserowitz
Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Listed in

This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.
Log in to save this article

Abstract

Climate change impacts everyone, but those impacts are not distributed equally. Frontline communities (FLC) face disproportionate climate change harms, but that may not entail greater worry about them. Worries shape community priorities, and understanding these worries can improve engagement strategies. Here we integrate Climate Change in the American Mind project (n = 6,183) data with the U.S. Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool to explore climate change attitudes among people located in FLC compared with those not in FLC. People in FLC and non-FLC are equally worried about global warming. However, people in FLC are slightly more worried about several climate change impacts and are less likely to think there is scientific consensus that global warming is happening. Geographic analysis shows where FLC are most and least worried about global warming. This study shows a need for strategic communication in FLC regarding the connections between climate impacts and climate change.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.31235/osf.io/7nqh4_v2 on OSF Preprints
  2. Version published to 10.31235/osf.io/7nqh4_v1 on OSF Preprints
  3. Version published to 10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101599