As record-breaking warmth waves sweep throughout the nation this summer season, a brand new nationwide ballot reveals an amazing majority of People are linking the punishing temperatures to local weather change — and voicing deep concern concerning the authorities’s skill to reply.
The American Local weather Views Survey 2025, performed by ecoAmerica, discovered that 86% of People say rising temperatures have elevated their concern about local weather change, with greater than half reporting they’re “rather a lot” extra involved.
The sentiment cuts throughout demographic and political traces, with 97% of Democrats, 83% of Independents, and 79% of Republicans expressing heightened fear concerning the local weather disaster.
“People are connecting excessive warmth to local weather change, their well being, and authorities inaction,” mentioned Meighen Speiser, government director of ecoAmerica.
Almost 9 in 10 respondents acknowledge the toll warmth is taking over public well being, with 58% saying excessive warmth impacts well being “rather a lot.” This consciousness is remarkably constant throughout racial, age, and earnings teams.
Amongst Black People, 91% mentioned rising temperatures have intensified their concern about local weather change, reflecting a number of the highest concern ranges amongst any group surveyed.
These issues should not summary. Many years of analysis by the Brookings Establishment, NOAA and others, present Black communities typically face the best publicity to excessive warmth and the fewest assets to adapt.
Research have documented that traditionally redlined neighborhoods, the place many Black People dwell, are routinely as much as 10 levels hotter than wealthier, predominantly white neighborhoods close by.
“Excessive warmth is the deadliest local weather hazard in the US. And whereas warmth itself doesn’t discriminate, centuries of racist housing insurance policies equivalent to redlining amplify its influence. Such insurance policies segregated Black neighborhoods, induced decrease fee charges of homeownership, and ensured underinvestment in these communities—all of which make Black residents extra susceptible to excessive warmth,” based on the September 2023 Brookings report. “In 2021, the Environmental Safety Company reported that Black individuals are 40% extra doubtless than non-Black folks to dwell in areas with the best projected enhance in mortality charges on account of excessive temperatures.”
In cities equivalent to Atlanta and Baltimore, Black owners are considerably extra prone to face warmth dangers and power insecurity, limiting their skill to chill their houses as temperatures rise.
Nationally, Black renters expertise increased charges of power insecurity, with over half struggling to afford ample cooling throughout warmth waves.
In the meantime, the most recent examine additionally factors to a notable shift in how People understand the hyperlink between local weather change and excessive climate. Eighty-two p.c now imagine that local weather change is making excessive occasions, equivalent to floods, wildfires, and hurricanes, extra frequent and extreme, up six factors since 2021.
Essentially the most dramatic change is amongst Republicans: the share who acknowledge that local weather change is fueling excessive climate surged 17 factors over 4 years, from 58% in 2021 to 75% in 2025.
These findings arrive as proposals to slash funding for the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) and the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) advance in Washington. The businesses are extensively seen because the nation’s front-line protection towards disasters and a important supply of climate forecasting and emergency reduction.
The dangers are notably acute for Black communities already dealing with disproportionate impacts from hurricanes and flooding, as seen within the devastation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and newer storms which have repeatedly displaced predominantly Black neighborhoods within the Gulf Coast and Southeast.
The survey exhibits People should not simply nervous about rising temperatures — they’re anxious concerning the authorities’s readiness to guard communities. Seventy-nine p.c mentioned cuts to FEMA and NOAA make them extra involved concerning the federal authorities’s skill to answer local weather impacts. That features 92% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 69% of Republicans, underscoring that the nervousness is bipartisan.
Generational divides are additionally obvious. Whereas 95% of younger adults reported that excessive warmth has boosted their concern about local weather change, the determine was decrease — however nonetheless important — amongst adults over 65, at 70%. Nevertheless, throughout all age teams, majorities agree that the disaster is escalating and requires speedy motion.
“These findings present it’s time to drop partisan politics and somewhat meet this second with urgency, management, and safety,” Speiser mentioned.
