Despite extensive research findings, conclusions of numerous international technical committees and the overwhelming consensus among scientists, some individuals, including government officials, business leaders and those on the far right, continue denying the global climate change crisis.

Those deniers believe any changes that may be occurring to the earth’s climate are not caused mostly by human activities but are due to natural changes in the environment and any proposed remedial measures to address the planet’s climate are unnecessary.

Fortunately, in most of the countries surveyed across the globe, the large majority of the populations have come to realize that the climate change crisis is a major threat to their countries. At the same time, however, a small minority among those populations, who tend to be vocal and frequently attract the attention of the media, continue to believe that climate change is not a threat to their countries (Figure 1).

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Source: Pew Research Center.

In the past several years, country surveys across the globe have found that between two-thirds and three-fourths of the world’s population believe that climate change is a global emergency. In some countries, such as France, Italy, Japan, Mexico and South Korea, no less than 80 percent of their populations view climate change as a major threat to their countries.

Accordingly, a large majority of people in countries around the world are calling for more policies and actions by governments and international organizations to protect the planet’s environment. In addition, with record-breaking temperatures and more extreme weather events, scientists worldwide are calling on governments for immediate actions to address the climate crisis, especially more quickly reducing emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

In contrast, a noteworthy minority among the surveyed country populations, ranging from three to twenty percent, do not believe that climate change is a threat to their countries. For example, close to a fifth of the populations in Israel, Nigeria, Russia and the United States, do not consider the planet’s changing climate to be a threat to their nations.

By and large, people denying climate change as a threat to their countries are opposed to adopting the recommended policies, programs and actions considered essential in addressing global warming. The reasons they give for their denial include: the lack of solid evidence; possible climate changes, such as rising temperatures, storms, wildfires, drought and flooding, are mostly due to natural environmental factors; the consequences of climate change are often unduly exaggerated and overly catastrophic; and the proposed policies and actions to address climate change will adversely impact the economy and societal well-being.

Those on the political left are more likely than the political right to consider global climate change a major threat to their country. In most of the countries surveyed, approximately 80 percent of those on the political left view climate change as a major threat. In contrast, in some countries, including Australia, Canada, Israel and the United States, less than 50 percent of those on the political right view climate change as a major threat to their country (Figure 2).

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Source: Pew Research Center.

While 85 percent of Americans on the political left consider it a major threat, while 22 percent of those on the political right view climate change as a major threat to the United States.

Furthermore, the proportions of Democrats and Republicans believing that global warming is caused mostly by human activities are 80 and 25 percent, respectively. A similar partisan divide is evident in prioritizing environmental protection over the economy, 78 and 20 percent, respectively. Also, whereas only 1 percent of Democrats say global warming isn’t happening, fourteen percent of Republicans deny global warming is taking place (Figure 3).

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Source: Pew Research Center and VICE News-Guardian-You Gov.

The partisan gap on climate change among Americans is also reflected in the country’s differing political administrations. The former Republican president heading the previous administration, for example, called global warming “a hoax” and the government did little to address climate change. In addition, the Republican candidates for U.S. president in the 2024 election are continuing to call the climate change crisis a hoax with most opposed to policies and efforts to address climate change. In contrast, the Democratic president heading the current administration recognizes climate change and has prioritized actions to address it.

Another notable rift in the climate change crisis is between scientists and economists. In general, the vast majority of actively publishing scientists, some 97 percent, acknowledge that the climate change crisis is real, is resulting in a wide range of climate disasters impacting every region of the world, and human activities are mostly responsible for global warming and climate change.

In contrast to the calls by climate and environmental scientists, economists have been relatively silent on the subject of climate change. And when the comparatively small numbers of economists choose to address climate change, they tend to grossly underestimate its costs and emphasize hoped-for technical remedies or fixes to climate and environmental problems.

Moreover, some of the economists addressing climate change believe that the world’s population can survive a 4-degree Celsius increase in global average temperature with the economic effects being relatively minor. Some have also argued that governments should not reduce planet-warming emissions too quickly because the economic costs to human populations today will be higher than the benefits of protecting people in the future.

Some climate crisis deniers have said that climate change is not a catastrophic path for the world and are opposed to actions to address climate change. Others have claimed that the earth is actually cooling and that greenhouse emissions are good for biological productivity as plants grow much better due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

And still others are cornucopians asserting that the climate change crisis doesn’t exist or can be solved by advances in technology, the free market and capitalism. They are against policies, protections and actions to curb human activities contributing to climate change and do not believe that the planet has finite resources and carrying capacity.

Nevertheless, it has become abundantly clear the planet is increasingly experiencing more climate-breaking records and more intense, destructive and frequent extreme weather events and environmental disasters. Most recently, the scientific community reported that the summer of 2023 was the hottest on record and by a large margin.

Both June and July were the hottest on record and substantially broke previous records. The northern hemisphere summer of 2023 has been the hottest since records began. Nearly all of the world's population experienced higher temperatures from June to August as a result of human-induced climate change.

Also, global average ocean temperatures have reached record highs and every day in August ocean temperatures exceeded the previous record set in 2016. Those high temperatures contribute to strengthening hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the Pacific.

To address the climate change crisis, governments need to implement the recommended actions not in the near future but today. As of yet, however, few nations have embraced the policies needed to meet current pledges. Scientists report a rapidly closing window of opportunity to ensure a livable and sustainable future for all of the world’s growing population of eight billion inhabitants.

Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence, the well-established scientific consensus, and the growing numbers of disastrous environmental events due to climate breakdown, a vocal minority of people continue denying the climate change crisis, promoting illogical ideas, skepticism, and disinformation, and obstructing efforts to halt the warming of the planet.

Changing the beliefs of people about the natural world has never been an easy task, even in the face of scientific evidence. Not long ago, many refused to believe that Earth was a sphere, that it revolved around the sun and wasn’t the center of the universe. More recently, many refused to recognize the link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer, the science of evolution and natural selection, the safety of automobile seat belts, and the benefits of vaccination programs.

Today, a relatively small but vocal minority of the world’s population refuses to believe that the planet is facing a climate change crisis with some actively promoting disinformation. It will take time for climate deniers, and for some never, to acknowledge the climate change crisis and that it is mostly caused by human activities.

Climate deniers should not be permitted to limit, delay, or derail the needed policies and actions of countries to address climate change that are recommended by climate scientists and strongly supported by large majorities of human populations across the planet.