This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including new polling on climate impacts, the California wildfires, and disaster preparedness.

Headlines

The Economist + YouGov – Around half of Americans say that they’ve personally been impacted by climate change, and three in five expect that they’ll be impacted in their lifetimes [Topline, Crosstabs]

Emerson College – Most voters believe that climate change contributed to California’s recent wildfires [Release]

Data for Progress – Even before the California wildfires, voters overwhelmingly supported government programs to help expand home insurance coverage, help pay for damages from extreme weather events, and invest in disaster preparedness and resilience [Article, Crosstabs]

Key Takeaways

• Democrats and Republicans continue to have very different interpretations of weather disasters. While Democrats and Republicans are both concerned about extreme weather, they have very different beliefs of what’s causing it. Following the devastating recent wildfires in California, surveys by The Economist/YouGov and Emerson College both find that most Americans see a link between climate change and recent wildfires – including the vast majority of Democrats and most independents, but less than half of Republicans.
• Voters across party lines are eager for solutions to the interconnected problems of rising home insurance costs and climate impacts. Whatever their feelings about the causes of extreme weather disasters, bipartisan majorities consistently say that they want the government to invest more in preparing for them. To that end, a recent survey by Data for Progress – which was fielded before the California wildfires – finds that bipartisan majorities support the federal government creating a national insurance fund to cover damages from extreme weather events, funding disaster prevention and extreme weather resilience efforts at the community level, helping to pay for the costs of home insurance for low- and moderate-income households, and directly providing home insurance coverage for extreme weather events.

Good Data Points to Highlight

• [Climate Change] 60% of Americans recognize that the world’s climate is changing as the result of human activity, while 24% say that the world’s climate is changing due to natural causes and just 6% deny that the climate is changing [The Economist + YouGov]
• [Adaptation/Resilience] 74% of voters support the federal government funding disaster prevention and extreme weather resilience efforts at the community level [Data for Progress]
• [Adaptation/Resilience] 71% of voters support the federal government creating a policy that would pay some of the costs of home insurance for low- and moderate-income households [Data for Progress]
• [Adaptation/Resilience] 68% of voters support the federal government creating a national insurance fund to cover damages from extreme weather events [Data for Progress]
• [Adaptation/Resilience] 67% of voters support the federal government providing home insurance coverage for extreme weather events directly to Americans [Data for Progress]