After the warmest March on record in the United States, even more people are starting to connect the dots between climate change and this weird weather. A new poll was released today which, according the New York Times, “shows that a large majority of Americans believe that this year’s unusually warm winter, last year’s blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made worse by global warming.”
Here’s what the poll found: 69% of Americans believe that global warming is affecting the weather in the United States. A full 82% personally experienced extreme weather last year, and 35% were personally harmed by it.
© 2010 Flickr/Dendroica cerulea cc by 2.0
There are a lot of controversial issues out there – gay marriage (45% for / 46% against); tax rates (48% too high / 45% about right); and even whether or not there should be a national college football championship. But climate change isn’t one of them. According to the poll, the vast majority of Americans understand that climate change is happening now.
On this issue, Americans understand the reality of climate change better than our leaders. It’s time for them to catch up to the rest of us.
James Anderson
April 18th
It’s time to change. Stop thinking we can drill our way out, start putting money into renuables. And stop wasting.
Jan Moore
April 25th
It’s only “controversial” to those whose salaries depend on it being controversial. People I talk to are quite aware of global warming/climate change and how it is affecting our climate, weather and biodiversity. Politicians and their campaign contributors seem to live in alternate universe where they also think they are insulated from the effects. However, more people who live in “red states” are being personally affected by storms, droughts, extreme weather events and are also seeing that Republican politicians in those areas campaigning for their votes are taking their lives for granted. I think there will be another tipping point coming and that one will be when Americans across the political spectrum will begin asking politicians of all political stripes why they aren’t talking nor caring about this. Mother Nature and reality is bringing them the real moral truth.
Gary Miller
April 26th
I’ll stand up to Big Oil & Coal. Time to phase it out & use nat. gas as a bridge to renewables.
Susan Elizabeth Bell
April 26th
It has been getting warmer. I go to school in Downtown Denver and I live in Aurora. Last week it was so hot I developed heat stroke on the way home.
Susan Bell
April 26th
It should not be controversial. The weather has been awfully hot It’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Denver, in April, It should not be 80 degrees in April. I remember when it wasn’t so hot.
Hank Helmen
May 2nd
I’m thinking, how much US taxpayer money has been spent already on disaster relief for severe storms, tornados, floods, drought and huge wild fires in the past couple of years alone? As predicted in Carl Sagan’s book Billions & Billions, written in 1996: “all computer models show that warming should be accompanied by significant increases in bad weather. Bad weather can be very expensive!”
MTS
June 19th
A poll? The NYT polls people, they say they felt hot, and this is non controversial proof of the existence of a climate crisis?
This is insane. We can’t cherry pick a hot day or a hot month, ask ordinary people if they felt it, and think that’s proof of something.