Key Takeaways:
- 65% of registered voters in the US believe that global heating is affecting the cost of living
- A majority of Americans disagree with the Trump administration’s moves to gut climate research and halt windfarms
- The climate crisis is taking a toll on food production, leading to price increases for goods such as coffee and chocolate
- Many Americans are facing rising home electricity costs and steep increases in home insurance premiums due to the climate crisis
- The Trump administration’s environmental policies are deeply unpopular with a clear majority of Americans
Introduction to the Climate Crisis and Its Impact on Cost of Living
The climate crisis is no longer just an environmental issue, but also a pressing concern for many Americans who are feeling the effects of global heating on their cost of living. According to a recent poll by Yale University, about 65% of registered voters in the US think that global heating is affecting the cost of living. This is not surprising, given the extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, storms, and heatwaves that are exacerbated by the climate crisis and taking a toll on food production. Recent spikes in the cost of coffee and chocolate, for example, have been blamed by experts on global heating, at least in part.
The Connection Between Climate Change and Rising Bills
Many Americans are also facing rising home electricity costs and steep increases in home insurance premiums, both of which are influenced by the climate crisis and the Trump administration’s decision to choke off solar and wind power, often the cheapest source of energy. The administration’s moves to gut climate research and halt windfarms are also deeply unpopular with a clear majority of Americans. Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, notes that despite the focus on the climate crisis drifting away among many politicians and activists, many Americans are grasping the connection between rising temperatures and rising bills. "It’s a fundamental error to treat these issues as mutually exclusive – climate solutions are also cost-of-living solutions," he said.
The Unpopularity of the Trump Administration’s Environmental Policies
The Trump administration has set about dismantling key environmental rules, firing federal scientists, removing public information on the climate crisis, and explicitly backing the fossil fuel industry over cleaner forms of energy. The president has said that renewables are a "con job" and a "scam" and has attempted to ban certain solar and wind farms. However, this agenda is deeply unpopular with a clear majority of Americans, with nearly eight in 10 registered voters opposing restrictions on climate information and research, while the same proportion of voters reject Trump’s demand that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) be eliminated. A further 65% of voters disagree with Trump’s move to block new offshore windfarms.
The Polarization of the Climate Crisis in the US
The US remains highly polarized in its consideration of the climate crisis, with 59% of voters preferring to back a candidate who supports action on climate, but only 21% of conservative Republicans wanting to support a climate hawk candidate. This polarization is reflected in the fact that while the proportion of Americans who think climate change should be a priority for the president and Congress has increased over time, this number has remained flat among Republicans. Leiserowitz notes that "looking at the long-term trajectory, there’s been a huge increase in the proportion of Americans who think climate change should be a priority for the president and Congress. But with Republicans, this number has basically been flat the whole time. It hasn’t changed much."
The Need for a New Approach to Climate Change
Leiserowitz argues that the climate crisis can still motivate voters if handled correctly, and that it is a mistake to treat the issue as separate from concerns about cost of living. "If your kid has asthma, you should care about climate change. If you want to make money, you should care about climate change. If you like chocolate, you should care about climate change," he said. "If we are stuck talking about this from just a scientific or political standpoint, that’s an incredibly narrow set of stories to tell, when this is the biggest story on the planet." By framing the climate crisis as a issue that affects people’s daily lives and pocketbooks, rather than just a distant environmental concern, it may be possible to build a broader coalition of support for action on climate change.
