Europe may be going through a record heat wave, and the Mountain West is experiencing a drought, but people across the United States are now less concerned about climate change than they were two years ago, and they don’t think they should have to make changes to their life to address the issue.
“I don’t know if it makes sense to say that individuals should have to work and fix the climate,” Denver software engineer Jack Hermanson told the Associated Press. “I would say my individual actions hardly mean anything at all.”
According to a new poll from the AP, about half of the country agrees with Hermanson that their individual actions do not affect the climate. As recently as 2019, only a third held the same position.
It’s not that America suddenly stopped believing climate change is real — a wide majority of people believe climate change is happening. It’s just that a warming climate doesn’t seem to be the pressing issue it used to be.
“There’s so much unrest in this country right now,” Diane Panicucci of West Warwick, Rhode Island, told the AP. “People are suffering.”
In 2019, 44% said they were “very concerned” about climate change. This year, only 35% say the same thing. Meanwhile, the percentage of people saying climate change doesn’t concern them at all has risen from 25% to 32%.
Inflation and rising crime have no doubt played a role in taking climate down a peg or two on the ranking of America’s concerns. But it probably also doesn’t help the environmentalists’ cause that they are constantly trying to get us to do crazy things such as eating bugs. Given the choice between 75 degrees and a bug sandwich, it’s not that surprising most people are fine with 80 degrees and a burger.
