Concern for Climate Change Is Great Among Latinos

At the end of the summer, the polling firm, Latino Decisions, released the results of their 2015 Environmental Attitudes Survey. (You can see the results of the poll, conducted on behalf of the organizations Earthjustice and Green Latinos, here.) Of the Latinos polled, 74 percent said that it was extremely or very important for the U.S. government to “set national standards to prevent global warming and climate change.” Another poll from The New York Times and Stanford University, conducted at the beginning of 2015, found that 54 percent of Latinos rated global warming as being extremely or very important to them personally, compared with 37 percent of white respondents. In fact, poll after poll finds that Latinos in the U.S. are often more concerned about the effects of climate change than other Americans. (Despite their concerns, however, 76 percent of Latinos have never been contacted by an environmental organization, according to the survey from Latino Decisions.)

In many cases, Latinos are also more at risk for feeling the effects of climate change. Take sea-level rise, for example. About 39 percent of all Americans live in coastal communities—but for Latinos, that figure jumps to 49 percent. Nicole Hernandez Hammer, the Southeast climate advocate with the Union of Concerned Scientists, joins Science Friday to talk about her work with Latino communities in Florida regarding climate change.