Only three years ago, but everyone was saying last summer was an absolute scorcher. That was followed by three hurricanes in quick succession. Then the temperature plummeted below zero for days this winter, and snow fell across part of the state.
the extreme weather – including the harsh cold – showed all the signs of climate change.
I reckon it’s just pretty obvious to me,” said Ries, a project manager for an environmental company and a self-described conservative-leaning independent bloke. “Things are changing pretty drastically; just extreme weather events all over the country and the world. … I do think humans are accelerating that process.
Around eight in ten American adults reckon they’ve had some pretty wild weather in recent times, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research. About half of them say they’ve had a run-in with severe cold weather or a severe winter storm personally.
Among those who’ve had a cold snap, about three-quarters reckon climate change is behind those extreme weather events, indicating that many people get that global warming can make the atmosphere unstable, letting cold air from the Arctic travel further south more often.
People from the Midwest are the most likely to feel the harsh effects of cold weather, with approximately 7 in 10 adults in the region experiencing extreme cold over the past five years, whereas roughly half of those in the South and the Northeast and about a third of those in the West have had a similar experience, according to the survey.
“It’s hard to believe, but it’s cold, so maybe it’s got something to do with global warming,” said Liane Golightly-Kissner, from Delaware, just north of Columbus, Ohio, who reckons climate change is behind a lot of extreme weather events.
But she says now it’s happening more frequently and over several days.
The survey also discovered that, while only about a quarter of American adults believe climate change has significantly affected their lives so far, about 4 in 10 reckon it will in their lifetimes – including on their health, local air quality and water availability. Nearly half of adults under 30 think climate change will affect them personally.
Approximately 7 in 10 US adults believe climate change is occurring, and they’re more likely to think it’s had, or will have, a significant impact on them compared to those who don’t think climate change is happening.
It’s gaining momentum, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, who attributes a mix of media coverage, political leaders speaking up and public concerns creating a “symbiotic relationship”.
“We’re noticing a growing awareness among Aussies that climate change is having a real impact on them right now,” he said, even though many people still view it as a problem that their grandkids will have to deal with in the future.
Rosiland Lathan, 60, from Minden, Louisiana, reckons she’s a believer because it seems like summers are gettin’ hotter and winters are gettin’ colder – including a couple of years back, when the snow and ice had her car stuck at work for a few days.
This past winter, she said, there was a run of temperatures in the teens and 20s, while a couple of summers back, it got “fair dinkum hot” with highs in the hundreds.
“It’s usually pretty warm in Louisiana, but not scorching hot,” Lathan said.
Bushfires, cyclones and other natural disasters, such as the disastrous fires in Southern California, are also causing a lot of worry that climate change might lead to higher home insurance premiums and household power bills.
Around 6 in 10 American adults are “extremely” or “very” worried about rising property insurance premiums, and more than half are similarly concerned about how climate change is affecting energy costs, according to the AP-NORC survey. Approximately half are “extremely” or “very” worried that climate change will increase costs for local emergency services and government infrastructure costs. Republicans are less concerned than Democrats and independents.
The survey also found widespread support for a range of measures to help people living in areas that are becoming more vulnerable to extreme weather and natural disasters, except for restrictions on new building developments in these communities.
About six in 10 American adults said they “somewhat” or “strongly” support giving money to local residents to help them rebuild in the same town after a disaster hits, while similar numbers back providing money to make residents’ homes more resistant to natural disasters and providing home insurance to people who can’t get private insurance. A quarter of Americans are undecided about each of these ideas, while about one in 10 are “somewhat” or “strongly” against them.
When it comes to limiting new building, there’s a mixed reaction. About 4 in 10 people think we should limit new building in areas that are especially prone to natural disasters, about 4 in 10 are unsure, and about 2 in 10 are against limiting new building in those areas.
Golightly-Kissner reckons there should be rules in place to stop rebuilding in areas prone to disasters or stricter building codes.
“These extreme weather events aren’t going to disappear, and it’d be arrogant to keep going about things the same way,” she said. “I reckon we’ve got to change our ways. We’ve got to look ahead to the future and work out the best way to keep our lives together when something like this happens again. Because it’s not a matter of if it’ll happen, it’s when it’ll happen.”
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Webber reported from Fenton, Michigan.
The AP-NORC poll of 1,112 adults was conducted from February 6 to 10, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage is supported by several private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Check AP.org to see the AP’s guidelines for working with philanthropies, and a list of its supporters and funded coverage areas.
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