New York Has Voted And The Results Are In

According to a recent poll taken by the Siena Research Institute of Loudonville, NY, the results show that the vast majority of New York voters believe that Hurricane Sandy demonstrated the effects of climate change. According to this poll, 69% of voters tied not only this superstorm, but tropical storms Irene and Lee (last year) to global climate change. On the contrary, the poll found that only 23% of New York voters believe that these storms were isolated events.

 

Considering the timing of Hurricane Sandy, which may or may not have played a significant role in this year’s presidential election, these results are staggering. While 8 in 10 Democrats said the storms demonstrated climate change, Republicans were more split on the issue. 46% of Republicans believe these storms were linked to climate change while 44% believe these events were isolated. Being that President Obama and Governor Romney had varying views on the subject of climate change, these storms could have very well played a big part in the election- with 69% of New York residents linking these events to climate change.

Along with this, according to this recent poll which was conducted last Monday through Thursday, it seems that the majority of people were pleased with the way in which Hurricane Sandy was handled, unlike the preparedness of Hurricane Katrina a few years back. Siena Research Institute found that 67% of voters said Governor Andrew M. Cuomo did an excellent or good job handling the storm, 61 percent approved of President Obama’s performance, and 53 percent were pleased with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Siena Research Institute, 2012).

This poll was interesting to me, and I would have to agree that the way in which this storm was handled seemed very appropriate. The mitigation acts that were in place and the preparedness of the affected areas without a doubt were much better than what we have seen in recent years; for example, as compared to Hurricane Katrina.

 
So what does this say for our future? Will we start hearing more about climate change and policies/plans to save our environment? I will continue to follow this topic to see how the issue of climate change revolves in recent news.

For more information on this recent poll, visit:

NY Times: Most New Yorkers Tie Hurricane Sandy to Climate Change, Poll Finds

Siena Research Institute