It often seems like climate denial has a logical end: Once the Earth's climate systems become unpredictable—or at least undeniably weird—everyone will be forced to accept our planet's new reality. For environmentalists and science communicators, that's potentially useful: The images of skinny polar bears and melting glaciers that represented climate change to the public for decades were emotional, but not personal. So as extreme weather starts to affect land past the poles and scientists have grown more willing to connect it with climate change, many groups have attempted to use those events as learning opportunities. However, a new study says that these events have little real impact on people's beliefs about the climate.
A survey of 3,000 United States adults showed that previous climate beliefs affected how people self-reported extreme weather experiences, like droughts and "polar vortex" disturbances. The study, published last week in the journal Environmental Communication, asked participants if they believed the Earth was warming (59.2 percent said yes), if they believed the cause was human activity, and if they believed there was strong scientific consensus about it. Then it asked them to self-report their experiences with extreme weather and compared their responses with National Weather Service data for their areas.
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