Mary Hoff

The headlines scream about war, crime, political strife, economic woes. But underlying it all — and more and more often bubbling to the top — is what future historians will likely look back and call the story of this century: Climate change.

It likely is no surprise to hear that people don’t always do the good they could — even if they want to. When it comes to supporting political action around climate change, that reality is particularly stark. Analysis of a series of surveys of American adults spanning three years recently found a marked gap between the willingness of respondents to take political action with respect to global warming and the extent to which they actually did act.