Most Americans now see signs of climate change where they live
Amid deadly wildfires in California and increased flooding along the U.S. East Coast in 2019, most Americans say the effects of climate change are already upon us — and that the U.S. government isn’t doing enough to stop it, according to a new public opinion survey. In the nationwide poll, 62 percent of U.S. adults said climate change is affecting their local community to some extent or a great deal, bringing more flooding and unusually warm weather, altering ecosystems, driving wildfires or exacerbating drought, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., reports November 25. That’s slightly up from the 59 percent who said the same in Pew’s 2018 poll. “What it looks like is happening is a larger portion of Americans are accepting that climate change is with us and poses a hazard,” says Risa Palm, an urban geographer at Georgia State University in Atlanta not involved in the study. The results follow what many environmental activists consider a watershed year for climate change awareness,...