Almost 7 in 10 People consider excessive climate occasions will turn out to be extra frequent within the close to future.
New polling signifies that People should not solely conscious that the local weather disaster is occurring (despite some presidential candidates falsely describing it as “a hoax”), however that just about half have just lately skilled the consequences of the disaster.
A USA Today/Ipsos poll carried out in July and printed this week discovered that 49 p.c of People had skilled an excessive climate occasion inside the previous month. Fifty-one p.c stated that they had not.
The quantity who’ve skilled such a climate occasion could also be even larger now, nevertheless, provided that the ballot was carried out two months in the past and that August saw additional extreme weather events.
In response to the ballot, amongst those that stated they just lately skilled excessive climate occasions, 71 p.c of respondents skilled excessive warmth throughout the previous month. A plurality of respondents, 49 p.c, stated they skilled poor air high quality, whereas 39 p.c stated they lived by a extreme thunderstorm.
Respondents additionally indicated that such occasions have been extra frequent than they have been simply ten years in the past, with 63 p.c saying excessive warmth occasions have elevated. Sixty-one p.c stated that, typically, the quantity of bizarre climate for the season has gone up throughout that point, whereas 61 p.c stated the identical about poor air high quality or air air pollution.
People are largely in settlement that the local weather disaster is actual, with solely 5 p.c saying they don’t consider in local weather change. Fifty-five p.c of these polled stated that the local weather disaster is being brought on by human exercise, whereas 22 p.c stated that it’s being brought on by pure patterns, contradicting what the vast majority of climate scientists say about the phenomenon.
Almost 7 in 10 People (68 p.c) consider that excessive climate occasions will turn out to be extra frequent sooner or later, and shut to 2 in 5 (39 p.c) say the local weather disaster is already affecting their on a regular basis lives.
The ballot’s launch coincided with a United Nations (UN) World Meteorological Group (WMO) report this week discovering that that is the most well liked 12 months on report for the northern hemisphere.
According to the report, the 2 hottest months ever recorded in that hemisphere have been extraordinarily current — August was the second-hottest month for the northern hemisphere, surpassed solely by July.
“The northern hemisphere simply had a summer time of extremes — with repeated heatwaves fueling devastating wildfires, harming well being, disrupting each day lives and wreaking an enduring toll on the setting,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said.
“The canine days of summer time should not simply barking, they’re biting,” UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres stated in an announcement concerning the report.
