Even CNN Admits It: Americans “Don’t Care” about Climate Change Hysteria

Voters understand that their quality of life is more directly tied to jobs and immigration, rather than trace amounts of a life-essential gas floating in the atmosphere.

From Legal Insurrection

Posted by Leslie Eastman

After multiple summers of “heat dome” hysteria, with climate cultism foisted on the public with apocalyptic headlines and ritual invocations of a planet supposedly on the brink, one of the leading pseudoscience propagandists has discovered an inconvenient political reality.

It turns out voters remain highly focused on matters closer to home.

CNN’s chief data analyst, Harry Enten, appeared with anchor John Berman this week to examine the political implications of “global warming” following the fake news reports that July was the hottest month ever recorded in this country.

Despite decades of relentless messaging and narrative-pushing, Enten reports that just 3% of voters list climate change as a top midterm concern, far behind the economy and immigration.

“You know, I was schvitzing a lot in the month of July, although granted, you know, I schvitz a lot all the time. But the bottom line when it comes to voters is, simply put, they don’t care. They don’t care.

“I mean, just look at these numbers. Okay, top issue in a midterm vote — you can list up to three issues. The economy, not surprisingly, comes in at number one at 54%. Immigration, 28%. Look at climate change — it’s tied for 14th, tied for 14th, all the way down here at 3%.

Johnny, I’m not the greatest mathematician in the world, but I sure as heck know that 54% is a whole heck of a lot higher than 3%.

So despite the climate being so warm in the month of July, the hottest month on record here in the United States of America, the voters, simply put, do not say that climate change is going to be an issue on which they vote in the midterm election.

Despite all the talk of climate change, voters, simply put, don’t care.

Climate ranks 14th on list of top issue for the midterm vote (at 3%).

Those who say it’s a very big problem is the same as in 2016 (~40%).

Not even a majority agree humans cause any climate change. pic.twitter.com/IQYG9xPYmc

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 12, 2026

I would like to think that the hard work of many good scientists, who have worked hard to provide context into the complexities of climate science and who stress that carbon dioxide is not “toxic” to the environment, has played a large part in the rational assessment of policy priorities of most Americans.

To put it in perspective, our planet is in an interglacial period that represents a relatively warm interval between glacial phases of an ice age, when global temperatures rise over thousands of years. Ice sheets and glaciers retreat, adding water to the oceans and raising sea level. Vegetation zones and ecosystems also shift as conditions warm, cyclically and naturally. Earth is currently in the Holocene interglacial, which began roughly 11,700 years ago.

Researchers now identify 11 interglacial periods in the last 800,000 years, including today’s Holocene. Most of these eras lasted about 10,000–30,000 years. The last four each exceeded roughly 20,000 years, although their most stable warm intervals lasted approximately 10,000–15,000 years.

We should probably be grateful to be as warm as we are, as the alternative is substantially less pleasant.

I am grateful to Legal Insurrection for giving me the chance to do my part in getting a solidly science-based perspective published, which I glean from real experts who are often silenced by our mainstream media, ignored by eco-activist bureaucrats, and punished by climate cult extremists in academia.  I would like to think these efforts have made a difference.

Americans are tired of being told that every warm spell proves imminent catastrophe, especially as many of us remember being warned with equal certainty about 50 years ago that the next great threat would be a future ice age.

The public recognizes that weather is hot in summer without accepting that every elevated thermometer reading requires another costly round of climate-policy panic.  Voters also understand that their quality of life is more directly tied to jobs and immigration than to trace amounts of a life-essential gas floating in the atmosphere.

In any event, the gap between elite climate messaging and voter priorities is becoming impossible for even CNN to ignore… as much as it may like to.

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65 Comments
Sweet Old Bob
August 16, 2026 2:17 pm

“So despite the climate being so warm in the month of July, the hottest month on record here in the United States of America”

Data please.

Probably does not go to ,say, 1900.

Reply to  Sweet Old Bob
August 16, 2026 2:29 pm

Hottest July? Not here in Wisconsin. Got to 100°F in 2012. BUT our winters are warmer than they were 50 years ago.

Reply to  Steve Case
August 16, 2026 2:36 pm

Both observations true also at my Wisconsin Uplands dairy farm

Sweet Old Bob
Reply to  Steve Case
August 16, 2026 2:39 pm

Yep.

Not here in Kansas either .

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Steve Case
August 16, 2026 3:06 pm

Wasn’t here on Whidbey Island either. Barely got to 80. And now in August, we’re barely hitting the 70s. But y’know, averages. *eyeroll*

Reply to  Steve Case
August 16, 2026 3:48 pm

our winters are warmer than they were 50 years ago.”

Does that mean you get a longer growing season, less frosts etc ?

Reply to  Sweet Old Bob
August 16, 2026 2:57 pm

That “hottest month” claim in the news is based on Tavg not Tmax station data. For the daily maximum temperature for July, the years 2012, 2006, 1936, 1934, and 1901 were “hotter” in the contiguous U.S. At this NOAA site you can switch between “average,” “minimum,” and “maximum” temperatures to see that the rising “minimum” values have driven the trend of the “average.”
  
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/climate-at-a-glance/national/time-series/110/tmax/1/7/1895-2026?base_prd=true&begbaseyear=1901&endbaseyear=2000&fbclid=Iw

Just another round of torturing the data to make it sound scary.

Sweet Old Bob
Reply to  David Dibbell
August 16, 2026 3:29 pm

Kansas 1936 high temp was 121F .Twice . In July .
We did not even get anywhere close to that this year.

Ex-KaliforniaKook
Reply to  David Dibbell
August 16, 2026 10:15 pm

Thanks for the link!

oeman50
Reply to  David Dibbell
August 17, 2026 5:50 am

Good, one David.

Not long after I started reading this site (in the late ’00’s), I read an article that said the increase in global average temperatures was due to increases in Tmin, at night.

I decided it was not worth getting wrapped around the axle due to it getting slightly warmer at night.

The data exist in the Land Where the Torture Never Stops. (h/t to Frank Zappa.)

Allen Pettee
Reply to  oeman50
August 17, 2026 10:43 am

And one wonders how much of that increased Tmin data is from urban heat island distortion of the temperature record, even bleeding into averaging with non-urban sites.

Denis
Reply to  Sweet Old Bob
August 17, 2026 3:17 am

According to the Climate Reference System, a NOAA array of weather stations distributed about the US at locations distant from urban heating operating since January 2005, there were 11 Julys in CONUS that have been hotter than July 2026. Overall, no trend in Julys has been recorded. Where did the claim that July 2026 was the hottest come from?

August 16, 2026 2:22 pm

Story Tip
Chasing subseasonal forecasts with AI

Subseasonal forecasting, or the ability to predict weather trends two weeks to two months in advance, is a capability highly sought after in various economic sectors, including energy, water management and agriculture. Reliable forecasts on this scale have thus far been largely out of reach, but researchers at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) are leveraging AI to see whether it can help them grasp this elusive capability.

Sparta Nova 4
Reply to  Krishna Gans
August 17, 2026 1:10 pm

Just ge the Farmer’s Almanac.

Mario Barbafiera
August 16, 2026 2:27 pm

So to scare people they publish this: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260814235845.htm

Now I have not read the article. However I teach in New Zealand where the classes have CO2 monitors ( a Covid hangover) The concentrations are often near 1000 ppm after 5 hours of students breathing 40,000 ppm into the class. We have supposedly risen from just under 400 ppm to about 425ppm. If the article has any credibility, we should have seen this issue decades ago.

Denis
Reply to  Mario Barbafiera
August 17, 2026 8:34 am

Operators of US submarines routinely work in an atmosphere containing around 4,000 ppm CO2.

John the Econ
August 16, 2026 2:29 pm

By all means, Democrats. Keep running on how we need open borders, higher taxes, and to outlaw gas stoves to save the planet while China invests in hardening up its power grid. Sure winner.

ResourceGuy
Reply to  John the Econ
August 16, 2026 6:42 pm

+50

August 16, 2026 2:30 pm

Surprised that CNN covered this at all. ‘Surprised and disappointed’ that despite July’s record heat, voters don’t care! Perhaps only news to CNN. Explains why their prime time viewership now runs only about 550000—in 2020 it was 1800000.

ResourceGuy
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 16, 2026 5:04 pm

They got the memo from party leaders like all the other memos to attack or pause or play up party talking points—for fee of course.

Allen Pettee
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 17, 2026 10:47 am

And most of those 550000 viewers are air travelers, who just happen to be sitting at airport gates under a TV monitor playing CNN while waiting for their flights to depart….

ResourceGuy
Reply to  Allen Pettee
August 17, 2026 11:38 am

Or in doctors’ office waiting rooms too weak to change the channel.

Bob
August 16, 2026 2:30 pm

Harry Enten is full of it. It is not that people don’t care about climate, they choose the climate they prefer everyday by using their feet. If you can’t take the heat you are more likely to live farther north or south of the equator. If you can’t take the cold you are more likely to live nearer the equator. Pretty simple really. One other thing we are more likely to choose the climate we were raised in. What the people don’t care for is being lied to and cheated by those you should trust. It is true they don’t care for that. As for scientists it is critical for our side to have excellent and honest scientists to shine the light of truth on what the other side claims. What many of our scientists miss is that their message needs to be communicated directly to the average guy in a manner any high schooler can understand. It is the average guy who will put an end to this nonsense.

Reply to  Bob
August 16, 2026 2:50 pm

’Climate scientists’ lost all trust and credibility a long time ago. Hansen predicted in 1990 that the East Side Parkway in Manhattan would be under water from accelerating sea level rise by 2000. It still isn’t. Wadhams predicted in 2012 that summer Arctic sea ice would disappear by 2016. It still hasn’t.
Both those messages WERE deliberately communicated in a manner any high schooler could understand—which is why they then lost all credibility.

John Hultquist
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 16, 2026 3:53 pm

 In the top banner (maroon color) there is a link to “failed predictions”.
You mention two. There are lots more, and it is a fun and eenlightening read. I think Charles and Anthony compiled this — if others? — thumb up to all.

Reply to  John Hultquist
August 16, 2026 5:21 pm

Thanks for that tidbit Here’s the LINK to it. It’s useful to know that it scrolls left to right and not down.

Junkgirl
Reply to  John Hultquist
August 17, 2026 4:40 am

I’d send that failed prediction info to some deluded folks I know but the creepy, constant and frankly repellent ads that have to be scrolled past would not lend a sense of credibility to this website, sadly. Worst ad situation of any site I go to.

Ex-KaliforniaKook
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 16, 2026 10:21 pm

Climate scientists’ lost all trust and credibility a long time ago.” They rank down there with criminals (the lowest), politicians (might be the lowest), and priests/preachers/imams. To be honest, I think most of the latter have lied to themselves and don’t want to know reality.

August 16, 2026 2:41 pm

“We should probably certainly be grateful to be as warm as we are, as the alternative is substantially less pleasant.”

And we can also be grateful that modern modeling of the general circulation shows us why any “climate” concern about CO2 emissions has been unwarranted all along.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1knv0YdUyIgyR9Mwk3jGJwccIGHv38J33/view?usp=drive_link

Thank you for listening.

Edward Katz
August 16, 2026 2:48 pm

Surveys in a number of countries show much the same results. In Canada, those surveyed might admit to be concerned about climate change; but when they’re asked whether they’re willing to make serious lifestyle changes and/or accept new taxes to combat the supposed problem, the concern level drops precipitously. In other words only the alarmists who stand to profit from making a big deal over an exaggerated problem are trying to tell us that the whole issue is serious.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Edward Katz
August 16, 2026 3:09 pm

Canadians should be more concerned that their gov’t would suggest death to treat a hangnail.

Tom Halla
August 16, 2026 2:49 pm

Al Gore flunked out of divinity school, but made a lot of money as a preacher.

cgh
August 16, 2026 2:55 pm

Harry Enten is correct. Particularly with this statement:
“Despite all the talk of climate change, voters, simply put, don’t care.”

This is a truly remarkable statement particularly for such a leading example of the legacy media. It’s an admission that, despite 35 years of relentless AGW propaganda from ALL legacy media sources, the voting public is completely uninterested in the topic. What the legacy media has done is recreate Chicken Little.
 
And this is CNN’s acknowledgement that the public has been tuning them out for more than three decades. Maurice Strong died in 2015. Now, here, a decade after he departed, the last of his legacy is getting buried too. And CNN is acknowledging his failure and theirs after all this time.
 
This is only CNN. There are still lots of recidivist holdouts in Europe. But that’s it. This admission by CNN is the closest thing any of us will ever get to an admission from the legacy media that, “it was all for nothing.”

Scissor
Reply to  cgh
August 16, 2026 3:03 pm

Trans women jock itch is of higher concern.

Reply to  cgh
August 16, 2026 3:05 pm

A speculation. The growing success of ‘alternative media’ has scared legacy media into a modicum of reality, as here. Only a modicum—as the (US) View and (UK) BBC prove daily.

Reply to  cgh
August 17, 2026 11:19 am

This is a truly remarkable statement particularly for such a leading example of the legacy media.”

Or they are just trying to reestablish themselves as “trustworthy” so they can continue to influence people.
Even AOC recently said, words to the effect, that, “Woke 1 was crazy!”.
She was one of it’s head cheerleaders! (Anybody remember The Green New Deal?)
Watch out for Woke 2!!
(And keep an eye on the MSM.)

August 16, 2026 2:56 pm

The Malthusians who haunt TV panels will tell you that “Democracy is a hyper-short-term issue, whereas climate change is a hyper-long-term issue.”

In other words: sacrificing “a small piece” of democracy to anticipate climate chaos would be preferable to sacrificing all of democracy when that chaos arrives and we haven’t prepared for it.
It is, of course, an indefensible line of reasoning for anyone who has even the slightest idea of what voluntary sacrifices of “a little bit” of democracy ultimately lead to. It means no democracy at all. Try putting the tip of your index finger between the teeth of a grinder, and see whether you can manage to pull the rest of your arm out before ending up as mince.

Dictatorships, enlightened or otherwise, mince the people who found it acceptable to rub up against them. That’s all.

Randle Dewees
Reply to  Charles Armand
August 16, 2026 6:18 pm

You do evoke some mental images!

Reply to  Charles Armand
August 17, 2026 11:26 am

Would the result be a “Covid Climate” or a “Climate Covid”?

mleskovarsocalrrcom
August 16, 2026 2:57 pm

They may have cared some when the scam was in its’ infancy but after years of relentless propaganda and failed projections now they are wise. Add the costs and regulations to the mix and you now have realists instead of scared followers.

Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
August 16, 2026 3:23 pm

A relevant PT Barnum aphorism:
‘You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but NOT all the people all of the time.’ Even CNN has arrived there.

Another PT Barnum favorite from my ebook, The Arts of Truth. He was having trouble getting people to leave his circus related exotic animal exhibits. So at the exhibit end he posted a large sign “to the EGRESS” with an arrow pointing to the exit door. Many people were surprised to then find that EGRESS was not another exotic animal!

Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 17, 2026 4:44 am

You mean its not a female egret?

ntesdorf
August 16, 2026 3:16 pm

Almost everyone can agree that warmer weather is better than colder weather (within normal limits). It is therefore very difficult to convince them that they should pay out huge amounts of money to buy slightly cooler weather,

Reply to  ntesdorf
August 16, 2026 3:55 pm

You have to laugh at places like Canada being scared of a little bit of warming.

A real case of cognitive non-functionality !

Mac
August 16, 2026 3:24 pm

Of course CO2 is not toxic! Keyboard climate “scientists”, politicians (mostly democrat but not all), journalists such as they are and indoctrinated greenies cling to much of the BS and are TOXIC. Thankfully Trump admin has started to reverse much of the Obama and Autopen mandates have gone bye bye and the EPA under Zeldin has reversed course and recovered grants in the billions. EV subsides are gone (except Ca) and windmills and solar panels are dying. Of course it’s a different story in Australia, Germany and the UK due to very ignorant politicians,

Reply to  Mac
August 16, 2026 3:48 pm

Just an old US guy’s opinions.

UK is about to change its story when Reform’s Farage takes over based on illegal immigration and economy issues.

Germany will change when Mertz loses his grip—maybe AfD even wins over CSU—again on immigration and economy issues. Both no different than Trump here in US.

Don’t unfortunately yet see hope for Australia, as much as I have several times in the past (and my newish fiancé this past February) enjoyed visiting. Of course I concluded long ago, having been invited to the Australian Rules Football equivalent of the Super Bowl about 1998 in Melbourne, that Australians are crazy. Crazy enough to play their version of American tackle football (both have evolved versions of the forward pass from English rugby) without shoulder pads or helmets. Watched multiple guys carted off with concussions and broken collar bones.

Mac
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 16, 2026 4:59 pm

I lived in Australia for about 5 yrs in the 90s and left in 98. It was definitely more sane then although it was a social democracy. The Aussies were even then not like Americans. I would ask a question about such and such and the answer was invariabily the government will take care of it. As Regan said “the scariest 6 words in the US were I’m from the government and I’m here to help”
I went to Rugby and Aussie rules matches and they were brutal.
Horse racing is big down under and there is govt betting unlike US.
Lot of very nice experiences however. The Bondi beach shootings were blamed on the guns, heaven forbid blame the perpetrators. Got to be politically correct however. I used to go down there frequently (cycling). Of course the madness persists with global warming.

Mac
Reply to  Mac
August 16, 2026 5:13 pm

Regan didn’t use and in his statement.

Reply to  Mac
August 16, 2026 3:54 pm

What really is toxic, to the whole of society, is the anti-CO2 cult !!

Causing societal and economic issues where-ever it takes hold. !

John Hultquist
August 16, 2026 3:46 pm

So despite the climate* being so warm in the month of July,…”
*[‘climate’ sic temperature]
My guess: Ask a random group of people that can recite the months in proper order to say which of those twelve is likely the warmest. 97% will pick July and the 3% will say August.
I’ve experienced quite a few Julys – – the warmest was 1954.

Reply to  John Hultquist
August 16, 2026 4:12 pm

JH, kudos. I did not know that, so used Google AI to look it up. On average in the northern hemisphere, July is significantly hotter than August. The reasons are very simple and basic: July has longer days and a higher sun angle. OF COURSE, since the summer solstice is always June 20-22. Obvious in hindsight.

BTW, I am not in the 3% just stupid. There are local exceptions, like where I just spent 25 years in Fort Lauderdale. The reason for that exception is the Gulf Steam, which stores July solar energy in the Gulf then moves it north eventually to warm Europe. The average Gulf Stream current at Fort Lauderdale is just 4mph just 7 miles offshore—so by the time the major part of the warmed Gulf Stream reaches Fort Lauderdale it really is August!

Ex-KaliforniaKook
Reply to  Rud Istvan
August 16, 2026 10:45 pm

I’m from the outskirts of Reno, Nevada. August is the only month of the year we don’t have to keep cold weather gear in the car in case of sudden change in weather. Especially for us as we live in the Pah Rah Mountains 1200′ higher than Reno.

August 16, 2026 4:11 pm

Notice that when there is a temperature-based article here, it gets choked with Warmest/alarmists filling the thread up with warmest month or year on record commentary that often runs to more than 100 comments some even reach 300 then we see many other articles that cover climate in some way they barely show up at all because that has become their bogeyman is the slow temperature rise sends them into a fetal ball in fear as their visions of a burnt out future world swirls around in their well programmed brains that is a sign they have little we are gonna suffer and even die platform left to scream over.

Frankly I am waiting for the hottest minute and second on record post from one of these programmed sheep.

Hurricanes flat to small decrease trend. They go silent.

Landfalling Hurricanes in decline. They go silent.

Declining Major Tornadoes trend. They go silent.

No Hot Spot showed up. They go silent.

No Positive Feedback Loop showed up. They go silent.

Polar Bear Populations in slow increase regardless of the state of the Arctic ice pack. They go silent after failing to destroy an honest Zoologist Dr. Crockford over it.

The decline of the Arctic ice stopped after 2007 been oscillating in a narrow band ever since which Wadhams and other criers of doom pseudoscientists predicted would vanish by year 2012 or by 2018.

Cold weather causes far more deaths than hot weather, they ignore it.

The IPCC recently drops the 8.5 & 7.0 RCP scenarios which they have built their pseudoscience propaganda around for years now their credibility is GONE! They are ignoring this colossal failure anyway because they are well programmed to be stupid with it.

Then their numerous play station modeling scenarios have been running way hot and far above observed trend for years, they continue to persist in pushing this dead end for years anyway with lies because it is a SCAM!

But when there is news of any temperature rise posted, they go screaming about it every time because it is all they have left to rally around…. that is how shallow they have become.

When the AMO goes into the long decline soon global warming will stop being visible and they will despair as their climate change scam vanishes under unrelenting declining temperatures reality.

I wonder how many of them will jump out of windows when they no longer can ignore reality or will they just slink away to deny it in silence….

Reply to  Sunsettommy
August 16, 2026 4:37 pm

If windows, let’s hope higher than just the second floor—paratroopers know how to survive that unharmed. Most cannot ‘just slink away’ either—the Internet is forever.

There is fortunately a third option, applying to them Alinsky’s fifth rule for radicals: Ridicule. Lots. Relentless. Everywhere. FUN when applied.

paul courtney
Reply to  Sunsettommy
August 17, 2026 5:25 am

Mr. tommy: I’m sorry/not sorry for my small part in those 300 comment strings, but as Mr. Istvan notes, one weapon we got is ridicule. When I show the trolls the folly of their comment, it always hurts me more than it hurts them. (Hang head solemnly here).
Seriously, thank you for this site, where CliSci fans demonstrate errors that even I can see.

August 16, 2026 4:36 pm

I can’t say I am surprised by the survey.

Every survey has climate change at the bottom of the list and has for years. The only surprise is CNN talking about it publicly.

August 16, 2026 4:53 pm

Interesting what the voters think and interesting what the scientists think, but the only thing that will matter is what the technocrats who will be running the programmable currency monitoring and control system think. Will they believe human emissions are causing a climate crisis? Don’t know, but they surely will act like it is.

ResourceGuy
August 16, 2026 5:01 pm

Don’t care or wised up? There is a difference.

August 16, 2026 5:05 pm

The insanity goes all the way back to 1855.

Yep.

nyt-1855
Reply to  Dan Donaldson
August 16, 2026 5:06 pm

1890

Capture
August 16, 2026 5:32 pm

We should probably be grateful to be as warm as we are, as the alternative is substantially less pleasant.

The door is now wide open for the next glacial cycle of the Northern Hemisphere. And also note that the Southern Hemisphere remained glaciated south of 60S during the present cycle has been its experience now for about 5Myr.

In the present precession cycle, the solar energy over the tropics bottomed to a daily average of of 8.6206ZJ in the 13th century. It has been increasing since with a cumulative total to present day of 250ZJ. Possibly more important is the fact that more of the tropics is reaching monsoon conditions and that increases poleward moisture advection.

So the end of the present NH interglacial has been in progress since 13th century. Greenland has turned the corner with ice accummation above 2300m for this entire century.

So the cargo cult that the UN has inspired to demonise fossil fuel and its energy value is placing the human population living north of 40N in dire straits. Still ample time to correct this folly because interglacials exhibit short sharp temperature rise of around 2C before, sea level plunges.

Mario Barbafiera
August 16, 2026 7:17 pm
Reply to  Mario Barbafiera
August 16, 2026 7:46 pm

Just the source is all that is needed to define bad science journalism ! 🙂

Bruce Cobb
August 16, 2026 8:51 pm

It’s like saying voters “don’t care” about the Easter Bunny, or “don’t care” about little green men in flying saucers attacking us. Their precious belief system is crumbling before their eyes, and they are in total fear and denial about it.

Tusten02
August 17, 2026 12:02 am

The 1930s were the warmest since the LIA. In Holocene, the hottest period occurred 8000 years ago and is called Holocene OPtimum!