Communities Most Affected by Global Warming Want Action

While the majority of Americans are not really phased by the thought of climate change and global warming, it seems that most African Americans feel otherwise.

According to a poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, wherein 1,058 people were asked “if they believed global warming was occurring and how concerned about it they should be,” the majority believe humans are somewhat responsible for it, 25% are very worried and an astounding 40% are not too concerned.

This is shocking seeing that the USA is a big contributor to the problem of global warming, but I suppose it is to be expected. According to Dana Fisher, director of the Program for Society and the Environment at the University of Maryland, “The big deal is that climate has not been a voting issue of the American population. If the American population were left to lead on the issue of climate, it’s just not going to happen.”

Another poll, Themes and Findings from a Survey of African-Americans on Climate and Clean Energy, conducted by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) and Marketing Resources International, Inc and released on October 28, 2015, found that there is “strong and broad support among African-Americans for a transition to more use of clean and renewable energy – including overwhelming support for the Clean Power Plan” and that

The survey/poll also shows that:

Three in five African-Americans rate global warming and air pollution as serious problems. While crime, economic issues and education rank as the most serious problems for African-Americans, fully 60 percent see Global warming as an “extremely” or “very serious problem.” An essentially equal proportion is concerned with air pollution more broadly (58%).

African-Americans express greater desire for action on global warming than do adults nationally. Just three percent of African-Americans say that concern about global warming is unwarranted, compared with 13percent in the population at large (source: NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted June 2014). In addition, more than two-thirds (67 percent) of black Americans believe at least some action should be taken against global warming.

Many African Americans recognize that their community bears a greater burden from the impacts of air pollution and climate change. More than one-third (34 percent) say that when it comes to potential harm from global warming or climate change, the black community is likely to face more harm than other Americans. When asked the same question about air pollution, more than eight times as many (43 percent) say the black community faces “more” harm than say it faces “less” (5 percent).