Floridians, more than other Americans, believe climate change is actually happening, according to a by Florida Atlantic University. They also want the government to do something about it.
FAU鈥檚 Center for Environmental Studies (CES) found that 90% of Floridians believe climate change is underway, whereas only 74% of Americans as a whole think climate change is happening, according to a recent Yale University survey.
Previous FAU surveys were similar, showing that 86% to 92% of Floridians had that belief.
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One conducted by AP and the University of Chicago in April and September of 2023 shows that close to 90% of Americans surveyed said they鈥檇 experienced extreme weather in the past five years.
Of that 90%, 75% think climate change is at least partially responsible, and 74% think climate change is happening, though they disagree as to the causes.
鈥淔loridians might be more likely to believe climate change is happening due to their experiences with hurricanes and other extreme weather,鈥� said Colin Polsky, Ph.D., the founding director of FAU鈥檚 School of Environmental, Coastal and Ocean Sustainability.
Florida is certainly prone to weather emergencies. According to data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Florida is home to 13 of the top 25 most natural disaster-prone counties in the U.S. between 2013 and 2023.
Broward County鈥檚 most recent FEMA disaster declaration was not a hurricane but a sudden tempest on April 12, 2023, that dumped 26 inches of rain on some parts of Fort Lauderdale, and caused widespread flooding and the of the City Hall building.
Florida residents not only acknowledge climate change at a higher rate than the rest of the U.S., they also want both the state and federal government to do something about it.
Sixty-nine percent support for state action and 70% support for federal action.
There isn鈥檛 necessarily agreement on the cause of climate change, though. The study found that in March, 65% of those surveyed believed there were human causes to climate change, but in the most recent poll in September, that number declined slightly to 57%.
Polsky suspects that could change as the state鈥檚 demographics shift. Florida added more than 400,000 new residents last year, and FAU鈥檚 last two surveys showed that newer residents were more likely to believe in a human role in climate change compared to people who鈥檝e lived in Florida longer than five years.
This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, 港澳天下彩Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.
