90% of Floridians think climate change is real, much higher than across the U.S.

While belief in climate change has waned a bit nationally, 90% of Floridians still believe it’s real, according to a recent survey by Florida Atlantic University.

Most Floridians — nearly 70% — want both the state and federal governments to do more to address climate change, the study found. “Floridians support strengthening our resilience to the effects of climate change because they are experiencing it. The urgency to act means debate over causes is largely irrelevant,” said Colin Polsky, director of the FAU Center for Environmental Studies.

Researchers conducted the survey in both English and Spanish on 1,400 Floridians ages 18 and older from March 18 to 21 of 2024.

The 90% belief rate is the same percentage as last fall, when FAU conducted its biannual Florida Climate Resilience Survey.

Nationally, 72% of Americans believe climate change is happening, according to a recent study by Yale University, down from 74% last fall.

Polsky said that Floridian’s acceptance of climate change as real makes sense.

We have climate and weather really in our faces,” he said. “The kinds of climate change effects that we’re expecting – warmer temperatures, stronger storms, more flooding – are happening here and not in Kansas or Wyoming. It’s just more in our faces here.”

Cause of climate change?

Though 9 in 10 Floridians believe climate change is indeed occurring, there is disagreement as to what’s causing it. The FAU survey found that 74% of Democrats believe climate change is largely caused by humans.

In the fall, 45% of Florida Republicans surveyed said they believed climate change was largely caused by humans. That number has dropped to 40%.

The most significant shift in climate change belief, though, came among independent voters and those with no party affiliation. Last fall, when FAU conducted the same survey, only 53% of independents believed climate change was due largely to human activity. That rate has now jumped up to 64%.

FAU started the surveys in fall of 2019. Since then, the overall percentage of Floridians who believe climate change is real and driven by human activity has risen from 56% to 58%.

Age, too, plays a role. Two-thirds of respondents under age 50 believed that human activity is the cause of climate change, whereas only half of those over age 50 thought human impacts drove climate change.

As for education, 67% of Floridians want climate change taught in schools, including more than half of Republican respondents.

“This abiding majority support for K-12 teaching climate change confirms the premise that Floridians want more climate change awareness and action regardless of the cause,” Polsky said.

Close to 70% of those surveyed said “climate change sparked their concern for the well-being of future generations.”

When asked if they’d be willing to pay $10 a month to strengthen Florida’s infrastructure to weather hazards, less than half, 48%, said yes.

Hotter weather

The FAU findings come as 2023 being the hottest year on record, globally.

Florida also is getting hotter. Since 1985, the average annual temperature of Florida has increased by approximately 1.6 degrees F, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records.

Additionally, Florida seems to be getting hotter faster than other parts of the world. Since 1950, the average global increase was 2.7 F, but Florida has seen a rise of 3.5 F.

Florida seas are rising as well. Today, sea levels in the state are as much as 8 inches higher than they were in 1950, and are rising faster in the last 10 years than previously, based on NOAA tide gauge data from Virginia Key in Miami.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has until May 15 to sign a bill that would strip some references to climate change from the state’s energy policy. The bill repeals what’s left of a 16-year-old law that lists climate change as a priority when making energy policy decisions. Instead, advocates for the bill said the state would make energy affordability, security and availability its main focus.

DeSantis’ climate policy has focused on resilience as opposed to reducing greenhouse gasses. The state’s $1.8 billion Resilient Florida program invests in preparing communities for storms, rising sea levels and flooding.

When he was a presidential candidate, DeSantis said his national energy policy would focus on energy dominance and would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, an international treaty with the goal of slowing climate change, often through the reduction of burning fossil fuels.

Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.