2023 California Environmental Poll Results

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Data for Social Good (DSG) conducted the 2023 California Environmental Poll to gain a better perspective on Californians’ perceptions of the generic effects of climate change and what they believe are the best ways to enact changes. They survey was conducted from May to June 2023 with 1,002 respondents.

Key Findings

The majority of Californians believe climate change is real and will have extensive consequences. The top three areas that respondents believe will be most affected are:

  • More frequent natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, flash floods, etc. (60.5%)
  • Extreme temperatures (60.5%)
  • Rising sea levels (53.9%)

When broken down by race, those who are concerned about the impact of climate change to their everyday lives were more likely to be people of color.

  • Latino (~65.9%)
  • Black (~70.2%)
  • Asian (~80.6%)

Additionally, White respondents are more likely than POC respondents to believe climate change is exaggerated by the media.

Climate Change Issues & Severity

The majority of Californians (72.2%) have noticed that the effects of climate change have become more severe in recent years with these three issues being the most concerning:

  • Drought conditions and water scarcity (67.3%)
  • Wildfires (56.9%)
  • Air quality/air pollution (56.4%)

From these severe effects, 86.1% of respondents believe that they are currently or will be affected by climate change. However, most Californians (59.6%) do not think that they will have to move because of climate change-related events.

Best Ways to Improve the Environment

Californians favored voting (73.6%) as the best way to enact positive change in the environment followed by advocating for a policy (51.4%) and volunteering (41.4%). When broken down into demographics:

  • Latino (49.8%) and Asian (52.6%) respondents favored volunteering over any other group
  • The age group cohort of 18-29 (64.8%) and 30-45 (58%) are more likely than older age groups to choose advocating for policy
  • Women were more in favor of advocating for policy (56.7%) and volunteering (46.8%) than men

In order to address these climate changes, Californians believe that punishing corporate polluters and investing in green technologies is the best policy to address climate change.

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