Jews more likely than any US religious group to see climate change as crisis — poll
Survey finds 32% of Jewish Americans deeply concerned about warming planet, though non-religiously affiliated higher than any religious group
Luke Tress is a JTA reporter and a former editor and reporter in New York for The Times of Israel.
Jews are more concerned about climate change than other religious groups in the US, according to a survey released on Thursday.
The poll, conducted in June, found that 32 percent of US Jews said climate change was a crisis, a larger proportion than any other religious group surveyed.
Following Jews were Hispanic Catholics, at 31%, according to the survey by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute.
The religious group least likely to view climate change as a crisis was white evangelical protestants, at 8%.
White evangelical protestants and Black protestants were the only groups who were less concerned about climate change this year than they were in 2014, the survey said.
The religiously unaffiliated were more likely to view climate change as a crisis than those belonging to religious groups, at 43%. Overall, 27% of Americans believe the planet is in crisis.
The more religious people were, the less likely they were concerned about climate change.
For Jews, 67% said climate change was caused mostly by human activity, more than any group besides Hispanic Catholics and “other non-Christian religions.”
Twenty-eight percent of Jews said climate change was mostly caused by natural patterns in the earth’s environment, and 5% said there was no solid evidence for the phenomenon, the lowest proportion of any group.
Jews were the least likely to admit to a spiritual attachment to the earth, with 42% saying they felt a “deep spiritual connection with nature and the earth most days,” compared to 52% of all Americans.
The survey found that among all Americans, concern about climate change has not shifted dramatically in recent years. In 2014, 23% viewed it as a crisis, compared to 27% this year.
Last month was the hottest September on record, and the most anomalous month ever measured in terms of heat, the European climate agency reported Thursday.
This year is on track to be the hottest year on record and has been marked by catastrophes including severe wildfires, destructive floods and scorching heat waves.
The poll results were based on a representative sample of 5,540 US adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
