Mothers Know Best: Our Moral Obligation on Climate Change

With Mother’s Day around the corner, Americans are preparing to honor the moms in their lives, and the many ways they care for us. As the saying goes, “Mom knows best!” ecoAmerica and Lake Research Partners found that this saying holds true, too, for climate change.

In their American Climate Metrics Survey, ecoAmerica and Lake Research took a look at how American mothers feel about climate change. They found that mothers are increasingly more aware and personally concerned, and are more apt to feel a moral responsibility to do something about it.

Mom Says Climate Change is Happening and the Weather is Changing

[su_row][su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]Mothers understand that climate change is happening right now, more than Americans do generally, with 83% agreeing (vs. 80% nationally).

[/su_column] [su_column size=”1/2″ center=”no” class=””]More than 9 in 10 mothers are noticing changing weather in their own backyards. They report this at increasing levels, at 12-points higher than national.

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Mom Says She is Worried About Climate Change

Your mother may join the 81% of American mothers who say they are personally concerned about climate change. Maternal concern has risen 6-points since 2015, and is at 8-points higher than the national total.

Mom Says We Have a Moral Responsibility to Our Children for a Safe and Healthy Climate

More than 9 in 10 mothers say they feel morally responsible to create a safe and healthy climate for ourselves and our children. An, while 93% of moms think this, it is also important to note that they think this intensely – 84% say they strongly agree with this statement. In comparison, 88% of Americans believe in a moral imperative, with 71% strongly agreeing (a 13-point difference).

As we celebrate our favorite women this month, let’s all take a moment to also thank them for their climate leadership.

Full data is available in the accompanying toplines.

Methodology

ecoAmerica and Lake Research Partners designed and administered this survey, which was conducted online September 14-18^th, 2018. The survey yielded a total of 800 adult responses. The sample was drawn from an online panel and the respondents were screened to ensure that they were over the age of 18.  The national sample was weighted slightly by region, age, race, and education. The margin of error for the sample is +/-3.5%. In interpreting the survey results, it is important to note that all sample surveys are subject to possible sampling error. Thus, the results of a survey may differ from the results that would be obtained if the entire population was interviewed. The size of the sampling error depends upon both the total number of respondents in the survey and the percentage distribution of the responses to a particular question. For example, if 50% of the respondents in a sample of 802 respondents answered, “Yes” to a particular question, we can be 95% confident that the true percentage would fall within 3.5 points, or range from 46.5% to 53.5%.

Suggested Citation

Speiser, M., Kobayashi, N., Gutierrez, M., Lake, C., and Voss, J.  (2019). American Climate Perspectives Survey 2019, Vol IV: Mothers Know Best: Our Moral Obligation on Climate Change. ecoAmerica and Lake Research Partners. Washington, DC.

© 2019 ecoAmerica.  The contents of this report may be shared and used under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

For more information contact us at research@ecoAmerica.org

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