Poll: Climate Change Concerns Grow, but Few Believe Biden’s Climate Law Will Help

April 23, 2024 by

A poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows 45% of U.S. adults say they have become more concerned about climate change over the past year (six-in-10 Democrats and one-quarter of Republicans).

However, the poll shows now that many believe that President Joe Biden’s signature climate change policy, the Inflation Reduction Act to invest billions in incentives to move toward clean energy sources, will help them.

Roughly one-fourth said tax credits for renewable energy projects have benefited people like them so far.

Following is a breakdown of the percentage of those who think certain provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act have helped people like them:

  • Tax credits to add solar panels homes: 26%
  • Tax credits for renewable energy projects (solar and wind power): 26%
  • Incentives for companies to manufacture clean energy technologies: 23%
  • Subsidies and tax credits for energy efficient appliances: 22%
  • Tax credits to buy electric vehicles: 21%
  • Federal funding for clean energy projects in low-income communities: 19%
  • Restrictions on leases for oil and gas drilling: 15%

$38 Trillion

The world economy is on course for an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years independent of future emission choices – this corresponds to global annual damages in 2049 of $38 trillion in 2005 international dollars, a new study shows.

A study out this week in the journal Nature conducted by scientists from Germany examines findings from more than 1,600 regions worldwide over the past 40 years to project sub-national damages from temperature and precipitation, including daily variability and extremes.

The study finds a likely range of $19 to $59 trillion 2005 international dollars lost by the world economy. The $38 million figure falls under “a middle-of-the road scenario of future income development,” damages the scientists say already outweigh the mitigation costs required to limit global warming to 2 °C by sixfold over the time span.

Daily temperature variability is expected to cause the largest increase in overall damages ($10 trillion in international dollars), while precipitation is expected to result in $1.2 trillion in damages.

Future changes in total annual precipitation mainly bring economic benefits except in regions of drying (Mediterranean and central South America), however “changes in extreme daily rainfall produce damages in all regions, reflecting the intensification of daily rainfall extremes over global land areas,” the study states.

Coral Reefs

Coral reefs globally are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time, a result of warming ocean waters amid human-caused climate change, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists announced this week.

Coral reef bleaching across at least 53 countries was confirmed from early 2023 to now, according to scientists from NOAA and the International Coral Reef Initiative. Bleaching occurs when stressed coral expel the algae that are their food source and give them their color. Severe and long-lasting affects can cause the coral to die, according to a Reuters article on Insurance Journal.

In addition to their importance to ecosystems, these reefs are often a major tourism attraction. Bleaching affected 90% of the coral assessed at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 2022, while the Florida Coral Reef, the world’s third-largest, experienced significant bleaching last year, according to the article.

“As the world’s oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent and severe,” Derek Manzello, NOAA Coral Reef Watch coordinator, said in a statement. Selina Stead, chief executive of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, called climate change “the biggest threat to coral reefs worldwide,” Reuters reported.

UAE Flooding

Massive rainfall in the United Arab Emirates and Oman this week was likely due to a normal weather system that was exacerbated by climate change, experts say. The storm initially hit Oman on Sunday before it struck the UAE on Tuesday, knocking out power and causing disruptions to flights as runways were turned into rivers, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, a record 10 inches of rainfall was recorded in Al Ain, a UAE city, making it the largest recorded rainfall event in a 24-hour period since records started in 1949.

A low-pressure system in the atmosphere compounded by low pressure at the surface had acted like a pressure ‘squeeze’ on the air, Esraa Alnaqbi, a senior forecaster at the UAE government’s National Centre of Meteorology, told Reuters.

Alnaqbi told the news service that climate change likely contributed to the massive rainfall, a comment that’s in agreement with climate scientists, who assert that rising global temperatures are leading to more extreme weather events around the world.

“Rainfall from thunderstorms, like the ones seen in UAE in recent days, sees a particular strong increase with warming. This is because convection, which is the strong updraft in thunderstorms, strengthens in a warmer world,” Dim Coumou, a professor in climate extremes at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, told Reuters.

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