This post includes climate and environment headlines, data points, and key takeaways from recent public polls - including lots of new polling and research on extreme heat, polling on climate change and clean energy as issues in the 2024 election, and new polling on the American Climate Corps.

See this webpage for links to all the following resources.

HEADLINES

• Data for Progress – Heat continues to rank as Americans’ top extreme weather concern, and voters overwhelmingly support measures to help Americans cope with it – including expanded disaster relief funding, investments in cooling infrastructure, and new requirements for landlords [Article, Crosstabs]
• Navigator – Despite partisan differences, voters widely agree that extreme weather is getting worse in the U.S. [Release, Report]
• Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) – Explaining how climate change makes extreme heat worse, using the Climate Shift Index, increases Americans’ belief that climate change is a factor in extreme heat events [Release, Open Access Article]
• Yale + GMU – “Pro-climate voters” make up a large share of the electorate, are eager to vote, and are enthusiastic about the IRA [Article]
• LCV + Climate Power – Trump is vulnerable to messaging on his climate and energy record [Memo]
• Data for Progress – Voters agree that there is a role for national service programs in the fight against climate change, and continue to widely back the American Climate Corps when they learn about it [Article, Crosstabs]

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Few deny that extreme weather is getting worse, even as the idea of extreme weather has become politicized. It’s now very common to see sharp partisan splits in people’s perceptions of the weather, as Americans have come to see extreme weather as part of the debate over climate change. Democrats and Republicans tend to differ not just in how much they attribute extreme weather to climate change, but even in their recognition that extreme weather is becoming more frequent. Encouragingly, then, Navigator finds that majorities across party lines currently say that extreme weather is getting worse in the U.S. – indicating that the reality of extreme weather is becoming undeniable even among those who are ideologically inclined to dismiss it.
   
• Reminding people about extreme heat, and using clear language about extreme heat’s link to climate change, increases beliefs about the climate-heat connection. Researchers at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) have come out with a timely study showing that communicators can deepen the connection between climate change and extreme heat for the public by using the Climate Shift Index and expressing the impact of climate change as a percentage (e.g., climate change made a particular heat wave “at least 400% more likely”). Additionally, their research finds that simply prompting people to recall an extreme heat incident makes them more likely to see a connection between climate change and extreme heat.

GOOD DATA POINTS TO HIGHLIGHT

• [Extreme Weather] 65% of voters recognize that the impact of extreme weather events is getting worse in the U.S. [Navigator]
   
• [Heat Mitigation] 80% of voters support FEMA adding extreme heat and wildfire smoke to the list of disasters to which they respond and allocate disaster relief funding [Data for Progress]
   
• [Heat Mitigation] 80% of voters support their state or municipality investing in cool roofs and cool pavements [Data for Progress]
   
• [Heat Mitigation] 79% of voters support requiring landlords to provide renters with air conditioning or indoor cooling in areas that experience extreme heat events [Data for Progress]
   
• [Heat Mitigation] 79% of voters support programs that specifically invest in cooling infrastructure for marginalized communities [Data for Progress]
   
• [American Climate Corps] 77% of voters support the American Climate Corps when provided with a brief description of it [Data for Progress]