After summer’s extreme weather, more Americans see climate change as a culprit, AP-NORC poll shows

Kathleen Maxwell has lived in Phoenix for more than twenty years, however this summer time used to be the primary time she felt concern, as day-to-day prime temperatures soared to 110 levels or warmer and stored it up for a record-shattering 31 consecutive days.

“It’s always been really hot here, but nothing like this past summer,” stated Maxwell, 50, who final week opened her home windows for the primary time since March and walked her canine outside for the primary time since May. “I was seriously scared. Like, what if this doesn’t end and this is how it’s going to be?”

Maxwell blames climate change, and she’s not alone.

New polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research signifies that extreme climate, together with a summer time that brought dangerous heat for much of the United States, is bolstering Americans’ trust that they have for my part felt the have an effect on of climate change.

About 9 in 10 Americans (87%) say they’ve skilled a minimum of one extreme climate tournament up to now 5 years — together with drought, extreme warmth, critical storms, wildfires or flooding — up from 79% who stated that simply a few months in the past in April. And about three-quarters of the ones consider climate change is a minimum of partially responsible.

In overall, 64% of U.S. adults say each that they’ve lately skilled extreme climate and that they consider it used to be prompted a minimum of in part by means of climate change, up from 54% in April. And about 65% say climate change can have or already has had a primary have an effect on of their lifetime.

This summer’s warmth could be a giant issue: About three-quarters of Americans (74%) say they’ve been suffering from extraordinarily scorching climate or extreme warmth waves within the final 5 years, up from 55% in April — and of the ones, 92% stated they’ve had that have simply up to now few months.

This summer was the hottest ever measured within the Northern Hemisphere, in keeping with the World Meteorological Organization and the European climate provider Copernicus.

Millions of Americans additionally have been suffering from the worst wildfire season in Canada’s historical past, which despatched choking smoke into portions of the U.S. About six in 10 U.S. adults say haze or smoke from the wildfires affected them “a lot” (15%) or “a little” (48%) in fresh months.

And around the globe, extreme warmth, storms, flooding and wildfires have affected tens of tens of millions of other people this yr, with scientists pronouncing climate change has made such occasions more most likely and intense.

Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, stated researchers there have carried out twice-yearly surveys of Americans for 15 years, nevertheless it wasn’t till 2016 that they noticed a sign that individuals’s revel in with extreme climate used to be affecting their perspectives about climate change. “And the signal has been getting stronger and stronger year by year as these conditions continue to get worse and worse,” he stated.

But he additionally believes that media protection of climate change has modified dramatically, and that the general public is decoding information in a more medical approach than they did even a decade in the past.

Seventy-six-year-old Bruce Alvord, of Hagerstown, Maryland, stated it wasn’t strange to revel in days with a 112-degree warmth index this summer time, and well being prerequisites imply that “heat really bothers me because it’s restricted what I can do.”

Even so, the retired executive employee does not consider in human-caused climate change; he recollects tales from his grandparents about dangerous climate, and thinks the climate is fluctuating by itself.

“The way the way I look at it is I think it’s a bunch of powerful politicians and lobbying groups that … have their agenda,” stated Alvord, a Republican who sees no want to change his personal conduct or for the federal government to do more. “I drive a Chrysler 300 (with a V8 engine). I use premium gas. I get 15 miles a gallon. I don’t give a damn.”

The AP-NORC poll discovered vital variations between Democrats and Republicans. Among those that have skilled extreme climate, Democrats (93%) are more sure that climate change used to be a reason, in comparison to simply part of Republicans (48%).

About 9 in 10 Democrats say climate change is occurring, with just about all the final Democrats being not sure about whether or not climate change is occurring (5%), reasonably than outright rejecting it. Republicans are cut up: 49% say climate change is occurring, however 26% say it’s now not and an extra 25% are not sure. Overall, 74% of Americans say climate change is occurring, in large part unchanged from April.

Republican Ronald Livingston, 70, of Clute, Texas, stated he is not certain if human task is inflicting climate change, “but I know something is going on because we have been sweating our butts off.”

The retired historical past instructor stated it did not rain for a number of months this yr, killing his grass and drying up a slough on his belongings the place he infrequently fishes. It used to be so scorching — with 45 days of 100 levels or more — that he may slightly cross outdoor, and he struggled to develop a lawn. He additionally believes that hurricanes are getting stronger.

And after this summer time, he is conserving an open thoughts about climate change.

“It worries me to the extent that I don’t think we can go two or three more years of this,” Livingston stated.

Jeremiah Bohr, an affiliate professor of sociology on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh who research climate change conversation, stated medical proof “is not going to change the minds that haven’t already been changed.” But people might be swayed if people or institutions they already trust become convinced and spread the word, Bohr said.

After a brutal summer, Maxwell, the Phoenix resident, said she hopes more Americans will accept that climate change is happening and that people are making it worse, and support measures to slow it.

“It seems very, very obvious to me, with all of the extreme weather and the hurricanes and flooding,” stated Maxwell. “I just can’t imagine that people wouldn’t.”

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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The poll of one,146 adults used to be carried out Sept. 7-11, 2023, the use of a pattern drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be consultant of the U.S. inhabitants. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 share issues.