Eyes Off the Earth? Public Opinion Regarding Climate Science and NASA

In this brief, authors Lawrence Hamilton, Jessica Brunacini, and Stephanie Pfirman report the results of two nationwide Polar, Environment, and Science surveys on climate change conducted in 2016, as well as a follow-up April 2017 Granite State Poll asking New Hampshire residents their thoughts on proposed cuts to the NASA program. Seventy-three percent of respondents in the nationwide survey said they trust science agencies such as NASA for information about climate change. The second-most-trusted source of information about climate change is family and friends. Despite political divisions, science agencies such as NASA are trusted by substantial majorities within every political group. Deep cuts to NASA Earth-observing satellite programs have been proposed by the president and in Congress. However, more than 80 percent of survey respondents (including majorities in all political groups) favor continuing or expanding NASA’s Earth observations, rather than cutting them