Most Americans Worry About Climate Change but Don't Say So. Park Websites Can Help

Around 64 percent of U.S. adults worry about global warming, according to the 2023 Yale Climate Opinion Map — but only 36 percent talk about it with anyone. That silence has a cost: people who care can't see that others do too. In a 2022 study, 66 to 80 percent of participants supported climate policy, yet most of them guessed that support was no higher than 43 percent, and up to 90 percent of Americans underestimate public support for climate policy. If talking about something seems unpopular, it takes courage to bring it up.

National parks, argues Claire Baker in Park Science, can help — and their websites are one of the best ways to do it.

A ranger talks with visitors at Glacier National Park during the "Goodbye to the Glaciers" program. Credit: National Park Service.

Why parks, and why online

There is evidence that the National Park System is warming faster than the United States as a whole, affecting resources from brook trout to shell middens. Parks respond with solar panels, electric shuttle buses and efforts to protect landscapes from drought and wildfire. But another essential response is helping people discuss climate change — in a way that feels unthreatening, and that shows them they are not alone.

The web vastly extends parks' reach:

• Yellowstone had three times as many webpage users as in-person visits in 2023, according to an internal analysis.
• More than 15% of 2023 nps.gov visitors who answered a satisfaction survey came to "learn more about science, research, natural resources, history, or cultural heritage."
• In a 2012 survey of 16 national parks and wildlife refuges, visitors said they wanted to hear about climate change from parks, and 46% preferred to hear about it through park websites.
• Climate change pages on nps.gov had more than 217,000 users in 2023, up 70% from more than 125,000 in 2019. Online information may appeal because it helps people avoid conflict or other barriers — a hypothesis that needs more study.

Train riders during a national park Trails & Rails event. Many visitors prefer to find park information online, including through mobile devices. Image credit: NPS / Kimberly Twardochleb.

Visitors also trust parks. Many Americans told Yale researchers they would act on climate change if someone they liked and respected encouraged them to; a 2024 Pew Research Center survey found most Americans have a high opinion of the National Park Service; and up to 69% of park visitors in one study said staff strongly influenced their decisions about protecting bats. What visitors read on park pages can carry into conversations with family, friends and communities.

Websites are also practical. They are easier to publish and update than permanent exhibits, can tell local climate stories that are more likely to resonate, and give interpretive rangers ready-made material for programs. In 2019, more than 11% of national parks had climate change webpages for the public; by 2024 more than 21% did — about an 85% increase in five years. Many parks still don't share their climate information online, even as more people experience climate impacts in their own neighborhoods and in the parks they visit, and go looking for explanations.

Four tips for a strong park climate page

The Park Service's Climate Change Response Program, which helps parks build these pages, offers this advice.

1. Focus on solutions. Americans' top question for climate scientists, a Yale study found, is how to solve global warming, and the most-viewed nps.gov climate page in 2023 was about cutting greenhouse gas emissions at home. Show how action can shape the future — for instance, by comparing a park's projected impacts under different emission scenarios — and suggest specific, meaningful steps readers can take. Examples: Capitol Reef's extensive "How can we respond?" section; Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which puts "How are we responding to climate change?" before the impacts.

Cycling past an erupting Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. Parks can suggest actions such as biking rather than driving through the park. Credit: Jacob W. Frank, National Park Service.

2. Let readers choose. Long, unlabeled walls of text put people off, and web readers tend to skim before reading closely. Use short, catchy section headings; put the most important information at or near the top; and make content "opt-in," split across pages or under dropdown menus. Examples: Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which breaks its content into attractive links; Glacier, which uses dropdowns to keep everything on one page.

A screenshot of Golden Gate National Recreation Area's climate change webpage. Organizing information in a visually appealing, easy-to-use menu gives readers a way to follow their own interests. Image credit: NPS.

3. Make a strong visual impact. A 2018 study suggests one picture can affect people more strongly than the equivalent word. Follow evidence-based principles — real people, local impacts, original and authentic images, such as affected wildlife, staff or visitors, following agency practice for images of people — and try interactive elements such as sliders comparing two images. Examples: the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail's slider comparing temperature under different emission scenarios; Yosemite's vivid images and animated graph of temperature rise since 1875.

A wildland firefighter during the 2018 Howe Ridge Fire in Glacier National Park. Credit: National Park Service.

4. Tell stories, not just facts. Ranger talks are popular because people come for a good story, and there is evidence that online climate stories engage readers better than facts. The stories need not be about climate at all: how people have faced hard times together, cared for places they love, or made choices that led to the present. The Park Service's History & Hope for Climate Action toolkit — an online publication, a worksheet and an interactive website for Interior Department employees — helps connect past to present. Examples: Boston African American National Historic Site, which links the actions of abolitionists to climate change; Rock Creek Park, which tells a story about extreme heat.

A Save Our Summits volunteer event at Acadia National Park. Online information can lead to greater participation in events like these. Image credit: NPS / Brady Richards.

Visitor looking at a sculpture of a suffragist at Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. Stories from the past can shed light on the difficult topics of today. They help show that even the most daunting problems can be overcome. Image credit: NPS / Victoria Stauffenberg.

Ripple effects

A single climate page may seem small. But one reader's experience can influence family and friends, who can influence their parks and communities, and outward from there. "Not talking about climate change doesn't make it go away," Baker writes. "If the only thing a park climate webpage does is provide the tools for people to have a conversation they were formerly reluctant to have, that could be transformational."

Flooding at the south entrance of Zion National Park. Image credit: NPS.

Sources

Based on Claire Baker, "How Parks' Popular Webpages Can Benefit the Climate Conversation," Park Science 39, no. 1 (Winter 2024–25), "Perspectives," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Pictures an earlier version of this page left out were restored on 2026-09-26.