Floods, hurricanes, heat: New poll shows Americans fear rise of extreme weather
As rescuers frantically searched for survivors in Texas Hill Country, a third of those surveyed nationwide last month said they sometimes or often worry that they themselves will be a victim of a disaster like a hurricane, tornado or flood.
The poll, taken June 13-15, showed both alarm about worsening weather and skepticism that the world would effectively respond to curb it.
A 58% majority predicted that extreme weather events will become more frequent in the near future, though views differed along partisan lines. An overwhelming 84% of Democrats felt that way, compared with just 38% of Republicans.
But even among Republicans, a plurality expressed fears of worsening extreme weather. Just 24% said incidents of extreme weather weren't increasing; another 36% didn't have an opinion or weren't sure.
The online poll of 1,023 adults, taken using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel, has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points for the full sample. The error margin for the Republican subsample is 6.1% and for Democrats 5.9%.
Feeling extreme weather where they live
Climate scientists agree that the threat of extreme weather is increasing.
"As Earth's climate changes, it is impacting extreme weather across the planet," a NASA report concludes. "Record-breaking heat waves on land and in the ocean, drenching rains, severe floods, years-long droughts, extreme wildfires, and widespread flooding during hurricanes are all becoming more frequent and more intense."
In recent days, much of Europe has been hit by a sweltering heat wave, reaching record temperatures for June in several countries and prompting a temporary rules change at Wimbledon.
In the poll, many Americans said they had felt the effect of dangerous weather in their own lives:
Climate progress underway? Or already too late?
Most Americans were both optimistic that humans could reverse climate change and pessimistic that they'll do it.
A 56% majority of those polled agreed with a statement that "humans can slow/reverse climate change but aren't willing to change their behavior." That included 83% of Democrats but just 33% of Republicans, who tend to be more skeptical of climate change.
One in five, 20%, said it was already too late to stop climate change at this point. An almost equal number, 18%, said humans already were making progress against climate change.
And 17% said the impact could be very personal indeed − predicting that climate change will make it more difficult to stay where they currently live.
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