Majority of US voters link extreme weather to climate crisis, study finds | Climate crisis
Amid a summer of dangerous temperatures, drought and floods, new polls show that a majority of Americans attribute the increasingly harsh weather to the climate crisis, despite Donald Trump’s efforts to dismiss global warming as a “scam” and “hoax.”
That’s a sign that attempts to quell polarizing climate concerns may not be fully successful, said Grace Adcox, senior climate strategist at Data for Progress.
“We started with the question about the increase in extreme weather events because we thought [that] “If we can reach consensus on this issue, this could be an entry point to having a more bipartisan conversation about climate and climate response,” he said.
About 61% of American voters believe extreme weather events have become more frequent over the past five years. questionnaire A result was found from progressive polling firm Data for Progress, shared exclusively with the Guardian. This includes 72% of Democrats, 63% of Independents, and nearly half of Republicans, 46%.
Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who has long criticized Democrats for silencing speech on global warming or “climate silencing,” said the new data “adds to the mountain of evidence that the public is far ahead of politicians on the dire consequences of climate change.”
“Climate silencers who ignore this just struggle should take notice,” he told the Guardian.
The researchers also asked participants whether certain forms of extreme weather were “worsening due to climate change.” Majorities attributed climate change to worsening wildfires (64%), drought (63%), floods and flash floods (62%), hurricanes (59%), and severe thunderstorms and hailstorms (59%). But heat waves were at the top of the list; 67% of respondents say climate change makes them worse off; This includes 48% of Republicans, the highest share of any extreme weather event surveyed.
That may be because nearly everyone in the U.S. has experienced unusually hot days or weeks in recent years, Adcox said. High temperatures kill more people in the United States each year than tornadoes, tornadoes and floods combined.
“There are regional differences in experiences with extreme weather,” Adcox said. “Extreme heat has the largest footprint in the American context compared to other extreme weather conditions.”
He added that the finding showed that scorching conditions could provide an “interesting opening salvo” for talking about the climate crisis.
Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said the new survey’s findings are “extremely consistent” with conclusions researchers have drawn from Yale’s surveys showing that Americans are increasingly experiencing climate change. connecting extreme weather conditions to the climate crisis and I want to do this protect workers from heat.
But even so, it’s unclear whether most Americans understand exactly why the climate is changing, said Jennifer Marlon, a senior research scientist at Yale who also focuses on climate communication.
“This is probably the biggest misconception out there; many Americans still think warming is due to some kind of natural cycle. But it’s not,” he said. spring research According to information from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 27% of people think the changes are mostly natural.
Adcox said the survey findings could help inform how to frame future conversations with skeptical Americans about the climate crisis. For example, data shows that temperature can be the weather extremes that invite most climate-related conversations.
“You might say, hey, this extreme heat thing is crazy, so let’s talk about it, let’s talk about why this is happening,” he said.
Another poll finding shows that even Americans who are not convinced that the climate crisis is human-caused or even occurring would support some measures focused on climate justice.
Amid rising temperatures globally and nationally, outdoor workers such as construction workers, agricultural workers, and roofers are among the populations most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses.
In fact, extreme temperatures are a leading contributor causes injuries and deaths in the workplace. Some indoor workers, including those working in warehouses, commercial kitchens, and manufacturing facilities, may face serious heat risks due to lack of air conditioning, inadequate ventilation, humidity, and other factors. That’s a risk most Americans think lawmakers should address, according to the poll.
Nearly 88% of Data for Progress survey respondents said they support policies in their state that require employers to provide heat protections such as access to potable water, shade, breaks and air conditioning. Only 7% of likely voters said they opposed the policy; This shows broad support for the protections offered by previous Data for Progress polls I also showed.
“These findings send a strong message: protecting workers from hazardous heat is not a partisan issue,” said Jessica E Martinez, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a network of two dozen local labor organizations. “When 88% of likely voters support employers providing essential, life-saving thermal protections, it is clear that the public expects every worker to be protected.”
He said the poll showed the public would support creating a federal heat standard; This is something workers have been demanding for years but progress has stalled under Trump.
This April, the current administration also authorized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s nationwide enforcement initiative focused on protecting workers from heat illness, then later issued a revised but greatly weakened program.
“Our hope is to continue profiling the broad and particularly strong support we see across partisanship for extreme heat protection for workers as a way to show what an approach to climate that puts working people first could look like,” Adcox said.
