The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Current Climate Crisis American Politics and Polls
Dear Diary. It’s time to take a brief break away from reporting on damaging heat and storms to see where the American public is on the “inconvenient truth” on climate change. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome the first two years of Biden’s presidency was at least getting the Inflation Reduction Act passed, which has the very first federal climate provisions and money geared towards fighting the climate crisis, ever in U.S. history. The next step will be to get President Biden to declare a climate emergency so that we can be on a true war footing to stop detrimental climate change.
So, after a myriad of climate change weather events affecting the U.S., where exactly does the public stand on the issue? For those answers let’s use a Yale Climate Communication article:
REPORT · Jun 28, 2023
Climate Change in the American Mind: Politics & Policy, Spring 2023
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Emily Goddard, Matthew Ballew, Jennifer Marlon, Marija Verner, Sanguk Lee, Jennifer Carman, Teresa Myers, Matthew Goldberg and Nicholas Badullovich
Filed under: Policy & Politics
Executive Summary
Drawing on a representative sample of the U.S. adult population (n = 1,011; including the 861 registered voters whose data are included in this report), these findings describe how registered voters view a variety of domestic climate and energy policies. The survey was fielded from April 18 – May 1, 2023.
This executive summary presents the results for all registered voters, while the main text of the report also breaks the results down by political party and ideology.
Global Warming and Clean Energy as Government Priorities
- 54% of registered voters say global warming should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress.
- 66% of registered voters say developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress.
Policies to Reduce the Pollution that Causes Global Warming
Majorities of registered voters support a range of policies to reduce carbon pollution and promote clean energy. These include:
- 79% support funding more research into renewable energy sources.
- 76% support providing tax rebates to people who purchase energy-efficient vehicles or solar panels.
- 76% support providing federal funding to make residential buildings in low-income communities more energy efficient.
- 75% support developing a national program to train people from low-income communities and communities of color for new jobs in the renewable energy industry (such as wind and solar).
- 75% support developing a national program to train people who work in the fossil fuel industry for new jobs in the renewable energy industry (such as wind and solar).
- 74% support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
- 71% support providing tax credits or rebates to encourage people to buy electric appliances, such as heat pumps and induction stoves, that run on electricity instead of oil or gas.
- 68% support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a tax on the carbon they produce and using the money to reduce other taxes by an equal amount.
- 66% support requiring electric utilities to produce 100% of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2035.
Conservation and Restoration Policies
Conservation and Restoration Policies
Majorities of registered voters support a range of conservation and restoration policies. These include:
- 82% support federal funding to help farmers improve practices to protect and restore the soil so it absorbs and stores more carbon.
- 81% support creating more parks and green spaces in low-income communities and communities of color.
Fossil Fuel Energy Production
- 57% support expanding offshore drilling for oil and natural gas off the U.S. coast.
Building Climate-Friendly Energy Production and Distribution Infrastructure
Many registered voters support building a range of climate-friendly energy production and distribution infrastructure in their local area. These include:
- Solar farms: 64%
- Wind farms: 57%
- Electric vehicle charging stations: 56%
- High-voltage power lines to distribute clean energy: 51%
- Nuclear power plants: 34%
Declaring Climate Change a National Emergency
- 57% of registered voters support a U.S. president declaring global warming a national emergency if Congress does not take further action.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA)
On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. The law aims to curb inflation, reduce prescription drug prices and the cost of health insurance, modernize the Internal Revenue Service, and invest in U.S. clean energy production. The law will be paid for by closing tax loopholes.
- 39% of registered voters have heard either “a lot” or “some” about the IRA.
- After reading a short description of the IRA, 71% of registered voters support it.
Who Should Act?
- Half or more registered voters say the following should do more to address global warming: Corporations and industry (70%), the U.S. Congress (63%), the Republican Party (62%), citizens themselves (61%), their local government officials (57%), their governor (56%), the media (55%), the Democratic Party (55%), President Biden (54%). 47% say they themselves should do more to address global warming.
- Only 11% of registered voters think the U.S. government is responding well to global warming.
Political Actions to Limit Global Warming
- 56% of registered voters say they would sign a petition about global warming if a person they like and respect asked them to, although only 17% say they have signed such a petition in the past year.
- If asked by a person they like and respect, 32% would donate money to an organization working on global warming (compared with 12% who say they have done so in the past year), 31% would volunteer their time to an organization working on global warming (compared with 5% who say they have done so in the past year), and 31% would contact government officials about global warming (compared with 8% who say they have done so in the past year).
- 27% would support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse, 15% say they would personally engage in non-violent civil disobedience, and 4% say they would be willing to get arrested as part of such an action.
- 1% are currently participating in a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming, while 9% would “definitely” join such a campaign and 22% would “probably” join one.
Collective Efficacy
- 51% of registered voters are at least “moderately confident” that people like them, working together, can affect what the federal government does about global warming; 47% are at least “moderately confident” that people like them, working together, can affect what corporations do about global warming.
State and Local Government Action on Global Warming
- 86% of registered voters support increasing the availability of public transportation in their county.
- 85% of registered voters support providing funding to help homeowners make energy-efficient improvements to their homes.
- 79% of registered voters support constructing bike paths and installing bike lanes.
After looking at this data it would appear that the general public is on board with policies that fight climate change. At least that’s a start, but will it be in time to cut off emissions in order to avoid catastrophic climate change? That’s the biggest question which we will endeavor to answer on this site during the next few months and years on this site.
Here are some “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is more climate and weather news from Friday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)