Surviving a Climate Disaster Isn’t Likely to Change How You Vote
More people in the US and Europe are enduring fires, floods and heat waves fueled by climate change, but researchers say it’s not significantly influencing voter decisions.
Residents inspect what remains of their home in Aguanga, California, after the Highland Fire, Oct. 31, 2023.
Photographer: Ethan Swope/BloombergThis year, elections and extreme weather events have collided: In India, the spring general election was snarled by a heat wave that killed dozens of people, including poll workers. In Germany, severe flooding prompted evacuations just days before elections for the European Parliament. And in the US, people attending campaign rallies have fallen ill from record-breaking heat.
Political contests set the course for climate policy, as the race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump surely will. Yet it’s unlikely that heat waves and disasters are changing the minds of enough voters who experience them to alter the results.