A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free “I wish I could tell you why we keep getting hit here in Kentucky,” Beshear said of the flooding and to the consternation of climate activists who know exactly why Kentucky keeps getting hit. “I wish I could tell you why areas where people may not have much continue to get hit and lose everything. I can’t give you the why, but I know what we do in response to it. And the answer is everything we can. These are our people. Let’s make sure we help them out.”In the wake of tragic flooding might not be the time to caterwaul about the climate crisis, but as the rate of natural disasters increases, as scientists say it will, the dots will have to be connected for more Americans.About half the country doesn’t think the climate crisis will hurt themA majority of Americans acknowledge that climate change is real and that humans contribute to it.But a lot of people in eastern Kentucky might not know they’re feeling the effects of the climate crisis.About half the country in 2021 — 47% — believed global warming would harm them personally, according to data gathered by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. It used a statistical model to apply the results on a state-by-state basis and estimated that Kentucky residents were less likely than the American public as a whole to believe that humans are mostly to blame for climate change or that climate change would harm them personally.Even mentioning climate change can be polarizingWhen the climate bill was in doubt last year, CNN’s René Marsh visited parts of West Virginia that suffered disastrous flooding in 2016.’I’m not buying into the whole …
Many Americans still don’t think climate change is coming for them – CNN
