One in four Americans skipping children and other life plans over fears of climate change: study

A quarter of Americans are delaying long-term plans like starting a family, fearing that climate change will drive ever more weather calamities, a survey reveals.

Research by Veolia, an environmental utility firm, shows a growing number of people are alarmed by global warming — four fifths call it a 'real' phenomenon and nearly two thirds put the blame on mankind.

It comes as storms and floods have claimed at least 17 lives in California in recent days, and as rescuers searched for five-year-old Kyle Doan, who was swept away by raging waters on the central coast near San Miguel on Monday.

The study indicates shifting attitudes in a nation that has up until now been skeptical of climate science, which was manifest in former president Donald Trump's decision to exit a global climate deal — a move reversed by his successor Joe Biden.

The survey indicates shifting attitudes in a nation that has up until now been skeptical of climate science

Frederic Van Heems, the firm's president across North America, said the survey of 1,002 people  all over the US indicated a 'sense of urgency' over climate change and how 'Americans feel it is time to act.'

Perhaps the survey's starkest finding is how fears of climate change have seeped into everyday life, influencing ever more people on major decisions like starting a family and where to live.

Only 14 percent of respondents said there was 'nothing to worry about'. A majority — 58 percent — were alarmed by climate change, but said it wasn't keeping them awake at night or upending long-term plans.

Even so, a quarter of respondents described 'not being at peace' due to planetary warming and said they were 'giving up long-term projects such as having children,' according to a copy of the poll sent to DailyMail.com.

They described worries over a range of climate threats that form the basis of many sci-fi movies — from harsher living conditions to mass migration and getting sick from inhaling dirty air. 

Other studies show how Americans increasingly consider floods, hurricanes and heatwaves when deciding whether and where to buy homes, driving new patterns of internal migration.

Even so, many unwittingly end up relocating to areas that are ravaged by wildfires, according to the ten-year study of migration patterns by the University of Vermont, which was released last month.

A flooded house is seen partially underwater in Gilroy, California, this week. Forecasters warned of floods as a parade of storms that have killed at least 17 people battered the western United States

As well as searching for Dolan, rescue teams in California were on Wednesday working to help some 50,000 people under evacuation orders, and more than 110,000 homes and businesses left without power due to heavy rains, lightning, hail and landslides.

The state's winter tragedy follows a year in which costly weather disasters kept raining down on America, with 18 climate extremes that caused at least $1billion in damage each, totaling more than $165billion, federal climate scientists say.

Even though 2022's heat wasn't near record levels for the US, it was the third-wildest year that cost $1billion in overall damage from weather catastrophes, they said in a report on Tuesday.

Hurricane Ian, the costliest drought in a decade, and a pre-Christmas winter storm pushed last year's damages to the highest since 2017, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The disasters led to at least 474 deaths.

Veolia's 23-page study found that Americans are increasingly vexed by climate change, which the UN says will drive a roughly 2.5°C (4.5°F) rise in temperatures against pre-industrial levels by 2100. 

That's well above the safe limit agreed globally at a Paris meeting in 2015.

Two thirds of respondents said pollution was a 'serious and immediate threat'. 

More than half said people had to change 'live more frugally and put in place technological solutions to reduce climate disruption,' the report said.

America's climate migrants 

Americans are abandoning parts of the country hardest hit by hurricanes and heatwaves — only to relocate towards dangerous wildfires, says a ten-year University of Vermont study of migration patterns.

Mahalia Clark, the report's lead author, called it 'troubling' that between 2010 and 2020 Americans relocated to areas prone to woodland and brush fires that would only become more frequent as the planet warms.

'These findings are concerning, because people are moving into harm's way — into regions with wildfires and rising temperatures, which are expected to become more extreme due to climate change,' said Clark.

This past decade, Americans have tended to migrate away from places in the Midwest, the Great Plains, and along the Mississippi River — all areas frequently beset by hurricanes or heatwaves, researchers said.

As well as escaping storms and muggy summer humidity, they were also waving goodbye to other problems, such as higher-than-average unemployment rates and wider disparities of wealth, they added.

People are migrating within the US, mostly from the Midwest, the Great Plains, and along the Mississippi River, to cities and suburbs in the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Southwest, Texas, Florida, and a swath of the Southeast, this chart shows

They've opted instead for cities and suburbs in the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Southwest — including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah — Texas, Florida, and a swath of the Southeast from Nashville, to Atlanta and Washington DC.

They were likely drawn for many reasons, including warmer winters, proximity to water and forests, moderate population density and an overall higher standard of living, researchers said.

But their new homes also face significant wildfire risks and relatively warm temperatures.

Gillian Galford, co-author of the report, which was published in Frontiers in Human Dynamics, said people were likely weighing the pros and cons of where to live, but not properly factoring the downsides of wildfires.

'For many Americans, the risks and dangers of living in hurricane zones may be starting to outweigh the benefits of life in those areas,' said Galford.