Extreme weather influences climate change perception

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Galveston Island, Texas, after Hurricane Ike Sept. 13. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.)

Galveston Island, Texas, after Hurricane Ike Sept. 13. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.)

Americans have strongly polarized beliefs about whether global warming is a reality. A survey run by the University of Michigan that’s been going on for seven years indicates that people are more likely to believe it is when they have witnessed extreme drought or brutal winter weather.

Current State’s Melissa Benmark speaks with Barry Rabe, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D. C. and a Professor at Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He’s also the  the co-director of the National Surveys on Energy and Environment, which produced the survey and the report.

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