WASHINGTON (AP) — Levena Lindahl closes off entire rooms in the summer, covers windows with blackout curtains and budgets to manage monthly electricity bills for air conditioning. But even then, the heat finds its way inside.
“When you walk upstairs, it’s like walking in soup. It’s so hot,” Lindahl said. “When I walk past my attic upstairs, you can feel the heat radiating through a closed door.”
Lindahl, 37, who lives in North Carolina, said her monthly electric bill used to be about $100 in the summer, but it has since doubled, which she attributes to a gradual warming trend caused by climate change.
About 7 in 10 Americans say extreme heat has had a slight to major impact on their electric bill in the past year, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Most have experienced at least some impact on their outdoor activities.
As tens of millions of Americans sweat through another summer of historic heat waves, the survey’s findings reveal how extreme heat is changing people’s lives in ways big and small. The survey found that about 7 in 10 Americans have personally been affected by extreme hot weather or extreme heat waves in the past five years. That makes extreme heat a more common experience than other weather events or natural disasters like wildfires, severe droughts and hurricanes, which up to a third of U.S. adults said they’ve been personally affected by.
A significant portion of Americans – about 4 in 10 – report that extreme heat has at least a small impact on their sleep, pets, or exercise routine.
Jim Graham, 54, lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and worries about the safety of his dog’s paws when he goes for a walk outside, especially when the temperature rises above 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). To protect her feet, they take her for a walk at 5:30 a.m. “This year it seems warmer than normal,” Graham said. His one-story home has central air conditioning, and even if he sets the thermostat to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius), it costs him more than $350 a month in electric bills, a big jump from what he paid about a decade ago.
He’s not the only one keeping an eye on the numbers: About 4 in 10 Americans say they’ve had unexpectedly high energy bills in the past year because of storms, floods, heat or wildfires. That includes nearly half of homeowners.
Like Lindahl, many see a connection to climate change. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults who experienced some form of extreme weather or weather disaster in the past five years say they believe climate change was a contributing factor. Three in 10 think climate change was not a cause.
Last year, the Earth was 2.66 degrees Fahrenheit (1.48 degrees Celsius) warmer than it was before pre-industrial times, according to the European climate agency Copernicus. While some may see the increase as insignificant, temperatures fluctuate unevenly across the planet and can be hazardous to human health. Several regions in the U.S. set all-time temperature records this summer, with Las Vegas reaching a scorching 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius) on July 7.
According to the poll, about 1 in 10 Americans say extreme heat has had a major impact on their sleep in the past year, while about 3 in 10 say it has had a minor impact, and 55% say it has had no impact. Hispanic Americans are more likely than white Americans to say their sleep has been affected, and lower-income Americans are also more likely than higher-income Americans to report an effect on their sleep.
The effects of extreme heat are more commonly reported in the West and South. About half of people living in the West say their sleep has been at least slightly affected by extreme heat, while about 4 in 10 people living in the South say their sleep has been affected, compared with about 3 in 10 people living in the Midwest and Northeast. People living in the West and South are also more likely than people in the Northeast to say their exercise routines have been affected.
Other aspects of daily life – jobs and commutes, the timing of events like weddings and reunions, and travel and vacation plans – have been less widely disrupted, but their impact has been felt disproportionately among specific groups of Americans. About a quarter of Americans say their travel or vacation plans have been affected by extreme heat, with Hispanics and black Americans more likely to say so than white Americans.
Even simply enjoying time outside has become more difficult for some. The poll found that about 6 in 10 Americans say extreme heat is impacting outdoor activities for themselves or their families.
Overall, people who don’t believe climate change is happening are less likely to report being affected by various aspects of extreme heat, compared to people who do. For example, about 8 in 10 Americans who believe climate change is happening say extreme heat has had at least a small impact on their electric bill, compared to half of Americans who aren’t sure whether climate change is happening or don’t think it is.
Mario Cianchetti, 70, is a retired engineer who now lives in Sedona, Arizona. His home has solar panels and heat pumps, which he installed because he wanted to lower his electric bill and save money. “When you retire, you’re on a fixed income. I didn’t want to have to deal with rising energy costs,” said Cianchetti, who identified himself as a political independent.
Cianchetti noted that the temperatures feel unusually warm, but said installing sustainable technologies in his home was a matter of finances. “It’s not that I don’t believe in climate change, yes I do believe we’re entering a hot cycle here, but I don’t believe it’s man-made.”
When it comes to general beliefs about climate change, 70% of American adults say climate change is happening. About 6 in 10 of those who believe climate change is happening say it is caused entirely or mostly by human activities, while another 3 in 10 say it is caused equally by human activities and natural changes to the environment, and 12% believe it is caused primarily by natural changes to the environment. Nine in 10 Democrats, 7 in 10 independents, and about half of Republicans say climate change is happening.
These numbers are essentially unchanged since the last time the question was asked in April and have remained steady in recent years, though about half of Americans say they have become more concerned about climate change in the past year.
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The poll of 1,143 adults was conducted July 25-29, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
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O’Malley reported from Philadelphia.
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