U.S. Cities Vary Widely in Climate Preparation Due to Politics, Study Says

Portland, Boston, and Los Angeles are further along than many U.S. cities in planning for extreme weather events linked to global
Downtown-Tampa-FL-140.jpg
Matthew Paulson/Flickr
Downtown Tampa, Florida
warming, according to a study published in the journal Global Environmental Change. The report found that Tucson, Arizona, and Raleigh, North Carolina, are in the middle-to-early stages of planning, while Tampa, Florida — which is at the highest risk for hurricanes in the U.S. and is located very near sea level — largely dismisses climate change and has done little to plan for it. The study is the first to look at societal factors, such as a city’s political environment, and how those factors affect action on climate change. Interviews with 65 local policymakers in each of the six cities revealed three factors that play a role in how well city planners prepare for climate change: the risk of extreme weather in a given area, public acceptance of climate change, and how aggressively a city’s residents engage in public policy.