Americans recognize the climate is changing. But they disagree on why — and what to do about it

As images of melting runways, buckling railway tracks and raging wildfires consumed the world's attention this week, Americans remained deadlocked on how to slow the climate change that scientists say is driving much of the extreme weather we're seeing.

The disintegration of U.S. President Joe Biden's climate plan — which would have pumped about $300 billion US in tax incentives into the renewable energy sector, subsidized the purchase of electric vehicles and accelerated efforts to cut the nation's carbon emissions by half by 2030 — underlined the polarization that still exists when it comes to prioritizing climate issues.

A survey done by the Pew Research Center in May found that 49 per cent of Americans said the Biden administration's policies on climate change are taking the country in the right direction, while 47 said the opposite.

And while the majority of Americans might recognize that the climate is changing, they don't always agree on what's driving that change and what to do about it.

Along with political divisions, the Democrats' progress on the climate file has been undercut by the fact that, at a time of painfully high gas prices and inflation exceeding nine per cent, voters in both parties don't see it as a top priority.

"Climate change continues to rank far behind inflation and gun violence as a matter of great concern for Americans," said Tim Malloy, an analyst for the Quinnipiac University Poll, which tracks voter sentiments.

"It remains an uphill battle to get Americans to focus on what the experts believe is a clear and present danger."

Quinnipiac and other recent polls rank climate change behind inflation, gun violence, immigration and election integrity as the most urgent issues facing the country. A CNN poll taken between June 13 and July 13 found that even among Democratic-aligned voters, climate change ranked fourth among the issues respondents wanted addressed in the November midterm elections.

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It's that sentiment that centrist Democratic Senator Joe Manchin tapped into when he failed to back his party's climate plan last week, ensuring its defeat were it to go before the U.S. Senate, control of which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

"The bottom line is inflation," the West Virginia lawmaker told reporters earlier this week. "I'm worried about the person that can't feed their family, that can't basically put gas in their car to go to work and is having a hard time paying their utility bills … I'm more concerned about that more than anything else."

Manny Villa thinks voters might change their tune come November. The North Carolina native who was visiting Washington, D.C., this week says his home state has seen more days above 32 C this summer than usual — and similarly unusual weather patterns around the country are getting the public's attention.

"I think climate change will have a greater impact on voting after this summer, when we've had record heat," he told CBC's Katie Simpson. "The economy will probably be the biggest impact, but climate change has to be up there." 

He'd like to see more investment in wind, solar and nuclear energy and more tax credits for residential solar power, he said. "Anything they can do to increase the use of that."