CNN’s Harry Enten Says Most Americans Are Not ‘Greatly Worried’ About Climate Change

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said on Wednesday that Democrats’ messaging on climate change is not strongly resonating with the American people.

The percentage of Americans who are “greatly worried” about climate change hasn’t changed since 1989, suggesting politicians’ messaging on the issue is ineffective. Democratic politicians have been pivoting away from climate change messaging since it does not appear to be on voters’ lists of priorities.

“And the worry in terms of climate change, simply put, hasn’t shifted,” Enten said. “It has not reached the majority of Americans. What are we talking about? ‘Greatly worried’ about climate change. You go all the way back to 1989, it was 35 percent, 2000, 40 percent, 2020, 46 percent. And in 2025, look at that. It’s 40 percent. The same number as we had 25 years ago back in 2000. And then only just five points higher than we had back in 1989. Really we’ve just seen consistency on this issue.”

“The bottom line is that the climate change message that folks who, of course, believe that climate change is real and is quite worrisome, simply put, has not really worked with the American people,” Enten continued. 

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Only 2% of Americans consider climate change to be their top issue, Enten said while citing a CNN/SSRS poll. That number has remained the same from 2023 and decreased from 3% in 2021.

“It is very, very low on the list of priorities. I was trying to count it out in the Gallup poll, and basically it was so low down, you know, I was counting all the different issues, almost lost track,” Enten said. “It was like 15th or 20th. It was just very, very low down. So the bottom line is not only are we seeing that the number has not really moved over the last 36 years, but in terms of being the top issue, it’s simply put, has not broken through.”

Democrats and the corporate media have shifted their messaging to talking about high energy costs rather than the Green New Deal, a multi-trillion-dollar policy proposal that would guide the U.S. to reach net-zero emissions within a decade. The legislation was introduced by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019, who also introduced the “Green New Deal for Public Housing,” which would remove gas stoves and install electric chargers in public housing.

Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats have blamed energy inflation on corporate greed, though numerous analysts have attributed the rising prices to former President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion-plus climate agenda. The Biden administration has explicit goals of decarbonizing the American power sector by 2030, and the overall U.S. economy by 2050.