Beyond Anxiety to Community Action

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton Co-Founder & President

We thank everyone who provided feedback last fall to students from the University of Georgia Interdisciplinary Certificate in Sustainability Program working with us to develop deeper insights about attitudes towards climate change and climate solutions among Sustainable Newton's members, supporters, and followers.  Their survey was one of the tools our Capstone Project Team used to assess the effectiveness of our current communications and make strategy recommendations to improve our engagement.  So thank you for helping them help us.

Meet the UGA Student Team

71% Alarmed or Concerned

Getting to Know You

​The students worked with a representative from the partnerships program at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications (YPCCC) to construct their survey, analyze the results, and develop findings and strategies they presented to us in early December.  We gained great insights, including the following:

• Of the audience we are reaching, 71% are either alarmed or concerned about global warming.
• Many of you are already acting in your homes or businesses to be more sustainable.  The greatest number of you are recycling and/or composting, decreasing usage of single-use plastics, and reducing energy consumption through efficiency measures.
• Just over 61% of you are either very aware or somewhat aware of the clean energy incentives available to homeowners through the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  However, 39% fall somewhere between just aware or not familiar at all.  So, there is continued opportunity for us to help Newton County households take greater advantage of the IRA.

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Zooming in on Newton County

The student's findings are consistent with public opinion surveying and statistical modeling Yale has been conducting annually since 2008 for every state, county, and congressional district in the US.  Because climate change has become politically polarized like many other issues in American, we don't talk about it often enough with family, friends, and neighbors.  Even though 71% of our audience feel concerned or alarmed, if you are one of them, you may well believe yours is a minority opinion.  YPCCC publishes their Climate Opinion Maps annually showing attitudes across the US on global warming and key issues.  They are publish fact sheets for each state, county, and congressional district.  The Newton County Fact Sheet contains numbers that may surprise local residents and officials:

• 73% say global warming is happening and 62% say they are worried about it.
• 80% support funding for renewable energy research.
• 75% want to regulate CO2 as a pollutant.
• 74% support tax rebates for energy efficient vehicles or solar panels.
• Only 31% say they discuss global warming at least occasionally​ ​

The numbers show you are not alone in your concern.

Making you alarmed is not the goal.  We exist to help you take action and to connect with a community of experts and early adopters who can help each other to apply climate solutions in their lives.

We're All in This Together

A key takeaway for us from the student's report is that a large percentage of you already understand the urgency of the climate crisis and are looking for concrete, practical solutions you can apply.  Making you alarmed is not the goal.  We exist to help you take action and to connect with a community of experts and early adopters who can help each other to apply climate solutions in their lives.  And especially to share the solutions that not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also save money and make energy more affordable for everyone.

We are continuing to work with the YPCCC Partnerships Program to leverage their deep knowledge on how to effectively communicate about climate change in ways that shift the conversation from problems to solutions and mobilize communities for action.  We are also extremely excited that one of students, Kendall Lippe has volunteered to continue working with us on implementing the strategies she and the team have recommended.

We have the opportunity to build a richer, more collaborative community of early adopters and experts in Newton County to assist one another.  Look to hear more from us soon, but also please reach out to us if you have ideas and suggestions. We all move forward together!