As we mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, and more than a year since Hurricane Ida, the vast majority of New Jerseyans (78 percent) believe the Earth’s climate is changing and consider changing climate conditions to be a serious threat to New Jersey (72 percent), according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll.
The 2022 New Jersey Climate Survey was conducted in partnership with the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center, the New Jersey State Policy Lab, the Rutgers Climate Institute, and the Rutgers Coastal Climate Risk and Resilience Program. This telephone survey was conducted by live interviewers from October 14-22, 2022, with a random sample of 1,002 New Jersey adults, aged 18 or older. The full sample has a margin of error of +/- 4.0 percentage points.
According to the poll, 80 percent believe that the state government should be required to include specific plans for infrastructure to withstand changing climate conditions and extreme weather events. Among registered voters, nearly seven in ten say the issue of the Earth’s changing climate is “very” (41 percent) or “somewhat” (27 percent) important to their vote in the upcoming midterm election.