Helene and Milton Just Did $200 Billion in Damage. These Places Want More Climate Action From Local Politicians

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24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Nationwide, 56.6% of Americans think their local officials should be doing more to address global warming.
• D.C. residents want the most local action on global warming, with 70.5% of residents supporting local officials doing more to address climate change.
• While climate change opinions tend to correlate with income, poorer counties in Alabama and Mississippi are also among the top 50 counties.
• Of the top 50 counties wanting the most local action on climate change, 34 are in the South.
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Part of what made Hurricanes Helene and Milton so destructive was recent migration to high-risk areas. Americans are overwhelmingly moving to climate-vulnerable areas throughout the Sun Belt, adding to the amount of property -- and ultimately lives -- that are at risk in a disaster. But as more of the country becomes vulnerable to big, billion-dollar disasters like Helene and Milton, more residents are supporting local political efforts to address climate change.

In their semi-annual survey, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication asked participants if they think "their local officials should be doing more, less, or are currently doing the right amount to address global warming". While nationwide 56.5% of Americans think their local officials should be doing more to address global warming, large regional disparities persist throughout the country.

In the District of Columbia, 70.5% of residents believe local officials should do more to address climate change, the most of any county nationwide. Meanwhile, in Emery County in central Utah, just 38.9% of residents believe local officials should do more to address climate change, the least of any county. Of the top 50 counties supporting local climate action the most, 34 are in the South, 10 are in the Northeast, four are in West, and two are in the Midwest.

To determine the counties that believe local officials should do more to address climate change the most, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on climate change belief from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication . Counties were ranked based on the percentage of surveyed residents who answered that "their local officials should be doing more" to address global warming in 2023. Supplemental data on median household income and the percentage of adults with at least a bachelor's degree is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and is for 2022. Data on natural hazard risk rating is from FEMA .

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