A third of Americans deny human-caused climate change exists

IN RECENT WEEKS Canada’s west coast and much of America’s Pacific north-west have experienced an extreme heatwave. Lytton, a village in British Columbia, reported record temperatures three days in a row: a new record was set on June 29th when thermometers read 49.6°C (121.3°F). The warm, dry conditions proved perfect for wildfires, and on June 30th residents were evacuated as a blaze engulfed the area in 15 minutes. Almost every building in the village was destroyed. Heat and smoke from those fires formed pyrocumulonimbus clouds, creating firestorms with lightning and powerful winds that threaten to destroy millions of acres of land.

It is a grim example of an increasingly familiar pattern. Each summer western America is afflicted by fires that pollute the air, kill wildlife and force people from their homes. Such infernos are becoming more frequent and more ferocious: the area burned yearly by wildfire in America has quadrupled in 40 years. According to a new poll from YouGov, 51% of adults see these events as the result of climate change (though the link between specific weather events and broader climate change is often tricky to establish). A significant majority of the public, 61%, agrees that “the world’s climate is changing as a result of human activity.”