Belief in climate change among Florida adults has risen to more than 90 percent, including 84 percent of self-identified Republicans, according to a new analysis of seven sequential surveys.
Seven serial surveys conducted by researchers at Florida Atlantic University since October 2019 paint a comprehensive picture of Florida residents’ attitudes to climate resilience during a period of particularly dynamic political, economic, and environmental events.
Climate change appears to have emerged as a binding and all-encompassing issue, and its importance has grown in Florida, at least, despite an explosive array of other events vying for public attention.
Belief in climate change among Florida adults has risen to more than 90 percent, including 84 percent of self-identified Republicans, according to a new analysis of seven sequential surveys. This seemingly emerging consensus may explain government actions today and in the years to come. For example, the Republican governor and the Florida legislature voted on a law with more than $400 million in climate-related mitigation and resilience funding in 2022. It is not clear whether public opinion is driving such actions, or vice versa.
For example, the 62 percent of Florida residents (51 percent of Republicans) who today favor increased solar energy production in the state appear to have seen a significant increase during previous surveys. Driving this surge is a noteworthy convergence of public opinion across income groups: in previous FAU surveys, analysis of responses to the solar energy question by income revealed a split of 10-20 percentage points, while that range is now only about five points.
Other important survey questions show more stability over time, but as with the solar question, they report surprisingly broad support. For example, 71 percent of Florida residents (57 percent of Republicans) support teaching climate change science in the K-12 classroom, and 42 percent (40 percent of Republicans) are willing to pay a monthly surcharge $10 for infrastructure to mitigate climate change. influences. These levels in Florida belie the strong partisan divide observed elsewhere.
Nationally, for example, less than half of the Republicans polled believe in climate change, and less than a third of them believe in a human cause, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center. The corresponding numbers in Florida observed in this survey are 58 percent and 38 percent, respectively.
said Colin Polsky, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Environmental Studies FAU Charles E•Schmidt College of Science.
Over the course of the seven polls, public opinion on climate change was likely shaped by the Trump administration’s 2017 decision to withdraw the United States from the 2015 United Nations climate agreement in Paris. Likewise, the public importance of climate change will likely have diminished in response to the sudden community-wide disruption in 2020 associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crises.
“Recently, climate change has been in the public spotlight this year perhaps more than ever,” Polsky said. “Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, officials around the world have been struggling to supply energy markets without compromising their commitments to reduce fossil fuel consumption.”
In August, the US Congress passed the largest-ever national law (the Inflation Reduction Act) to spur action to combat climate change. In late September, nearly all of Florida’s 20 million residents had to prepare for the rapidly developing, and eventually devastating Hurricane Ian, which would eventually make almost a Category 5 landfall. According to CoreLogic, Hurricane Ian could be the most expensive Florida storm ever, with insured losses estimated at $47 billion.
“Florida may be the first domino to fall from Republican-led states that are taking strong climate action despite the National Party’s disengagement from the climate issue,” Polsky said. “Inspection of the upcoming elections in November and opinion polls, and beyond, will test this hypothesis, both in Florida and at the national level.”
For more information, survey results and comprehensive scheduling processes, visit www.ces.fau.edu/ces-bepi/ or contact Polsky at cpolsky@fau.edu.
The survey was conducted in English from September 1-7, 2022. The sample consisted of 1,400 Florida residents, ages 18 and older, with a margin of error of +/- 2.62%. Data was collected using an online panel provided by GreatBlue Research. Responses for the entire sample were weighted to adjust for age, race, income, education, and gender according to 2020 US Census Bureau data. It is important to remember that subgroups carry with them higher margins of error, as sample size is reduced.
-Faw-
Originally published at San Jose News Bulletin
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