Almost every other American believes that people in the US are currently being harmed by global warming.
It may be a bit of a revelation that half the nation believes climate change is here and now. What’s not new is that opinion polls show that most people now agree with scientists who say the world is warming, increasing the likelihood of extreme weather, and that much of the warming is caused by human activities.
The findings are presented today in a poll conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
The poll also shows that 68% of Americans “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that wildfires around the world have increased due to global warming, and that a majority of Americans (56% ) thinks extreme weather will pose a “high” or “moderate” risk to their community over the next 10 years.
The group of social scientists at Yale and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication conducted a nationally representative web survey of 1,085 U.S. adults from Dec. 2 to Dec. 12, 2022.
They also found:
- More than two in three Americans say the issue of global warming is “extremely”, “very” or “somewhat” important to them personally.
- More than half (58%) understand that global warming is largely caused by humans.
- 44% believe they will be harmed by global warming, 48% believe their family will be harmed and 50% believe people in their community will be harmed.
- 70% think global warming is happening.
- 47% agree with the statement “I have personally experienced the effects of global warming”, while 53% disagree.
Index of actuaries
Unlike the much-discussed consumer price index, which showed a continued (albeit very mild) slowdown in inflation, a lesser-known index appears to be bringing bad news.
The Actuaries Climate Index was recently updated through August 2022 to reflect a slight increase.
The index measures climate risks based on extreme climate events and sea level changes. It provides measurements of specific and aggregated changes in climate extremes and sea level across Canada and the US. The index is based on an analysis of seasonal data from scientific sources for six index components collected since 1961.
An increase in the index, which is relative to an average score of 0 during the reference period 1961-1990, reflects an increase in the number of extreme climate events.
The five-year average is slightly up from the previous season.
He is now at 1.19. An interactive map of North America showing changes in extreme weather from 1960 to the present. The index also includes charts that show a breakdown of changes in cool and warm temperatures over time.
Greenpeace against VW
A German court this week dismissed a lawsuit brought against Volkswagen by environmental groups.
The groups, led by Greenpeace, argued that the automaker is violating their fundamental freedoms by producing vehicles that contribute to climate change, Reuters reported in an Insurance Journal article.
The lawsuit, which called for Volkswagen to tighten its CO2 emissions targets, may not be the last time the automaker hears from plaintiffs.
“The last word on our climate lawsuits against Volkswagen has not been spoken today,” Roland Hipp, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement. “We are planning further legal action and are confident that we can convince Volkswagen to do more on climate protection through legal means.”
Volkswagen, set to be heard again in Germany later this month in a lawsuit from a Greenpeace-backed farmer who says vehicle emissions threaten his land and threaten his livelihood, has argued that civil lawsuits against individual companies were not the right way to take action. action against climate change, according to the Reuters article.
Ice Robot
A robot that fell under a huge ice shelf in Antarctica yielded some unexpected findings, which could give scientists clues to better predict sea level rise.
The robot was sent under the Thwaites Plateau in West Antarctica, one of the fastest melting ice shelves on the continent and part of a massive glacier, which if they both collapse could lead to a sea level rise of up to two feet.
Peter ED Davis, an oceanographer and part of the team studying the ice shelf, told the New York Times that the research “tells us a lot more about the processes driving retreat on Thwaites.”
The NYT reported that the researchers now know that the shelf is melting less than expected in computer model estimates. However, they also found rapid melting in unexpected places that extended into the ice.
Thwaites already contribute about 4% to the rate of global sea level rise of about 1.5 inches per decade, and its retreat has accelerated in recent decades, according to the NYT article.
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