Texas Flood: Authorities are looking for a mysterious camper van for camping
The floods overwhelmed the Guadalupe River in Texas, killing at least 24 people, and spurring desperate, continuing rescue efforts.
- A majority of 58% of Americans say extreme weather is getting worse, a USA Today/Ipsos poll finds.
- 30% say they personally experienced extreme weather conditions, including heavy rain and heavy thunderstorms.
- The subjects of the study are optimistic that humans could reverse climate change, but they are pessimistic to do so.
Most Americans fear the extreme weather is getting worse, a new USA Today/Ipsos poll is a concern highlighted by rising deaths from flash floods in central Texas.
As rescuers desperately searched Texas Hill Country survivors, a third of those surveyed last month said they were sometimes or often worried about themselves becoming victims of disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes or floods.
A poll conducted on June 13-15 gave warnings about both worsening weather and skepticism that the world would effectively respond to its restraint.
A majority of 58% predicted that extreme weather events would be more frequent in the near future, but views differed along partisan lines. That’s how 84% of Democrats felt that way, compared to just 38% of Republicans.
But even among Republicans, several have expressed fear that they would exacerbate extreme weather. Only 24% said that extreme weather incidents were not increasing. Another 36% were unsure if they had no opinion.
Online voting for 1,023 adults collected using the IPSOS Knowledge Panel has an error of 3.2 percentage points for the complete sample. The error margin for the Republican subsample is 6.1%, and Democrats is 5.9%.
Feel the extreme weather where they live
Climate scientists agree that the threat of extreme weather is on the rise.
“As the Earth’s climate changes, it affects the extreme weather across the planet,” the NASA report concludes. “Recorded heat waves on the land and the ocean are becoming more intense, with rainfall, heavy flooding, years of drought, extreme wildfires and widespread flooding during hurricanes.”
Most of Europe has recently been hit by a swelling heatwave, reaching record temperatures in June in It encourages temporary rules changes in some countries and Wimbledon.
Polls said many Americans felt the dangerous effects of weather on their lives.
- 30% personally experienced extreme weather events the previous month. The most frequently mentioned were heavy rain and heavy thunderstorms.
- 57% say that unusual weather is more frequent than 10 years ago.
- 51% say the weather is more unusual than it was 10 years ago. 54% said the extreme heat was getting even more intense.
Is the climate progressing ongoing? Or is it too late?
Most Americans were optimistic that humans would reverse climate change and be pessimistic.
A majority of 56% of those voted in the statement that “humans are willing to slow/reverse climate change, but change their behavior.” That included 83% of Democrats, but only 33% of Republicans who tend to be skeptical of climate change.
1 in 20% say it’s already too late to stop climate change at this point. Almost the same number, 18%, said humans are already making progress on climate change.
And 17% say the impact could be very personal – predicting that climate change will make it more difficult to stay where you live now.
