Emergency responders are directing traffic around downed utility lines following a summer tornado in Mt Vernon.
“What’s going on — you can’t park there,” said a firefighter to a group of storm chasers parked on the main road.
This tornado luckily only damaged property. Dan Tenbarge of Evansville, said it came close to hitting his employer while he was at work. He was watching the clouds form a rotation, and then a tornado.
“By the time I drove home 20 minutes later, a building just west of there was leveled pretty well because of the tornado that formed with the rotation,” he said. “Since I've been younger, it seems like the storms and tornadoes are getting closer to our areas and more damage and getting more frequent.”
Tenbarge even took a National Weather Service Storm Spotter training class because of this concern.
While he’s seen the effects of severe weather in a changing climate, he’s part of a silent majority of Americans who don’t talk about climate change.
John Kotcher is research director at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. “We find that two out of three Americans say they rarely or never discuss climate change with their friends and family.”
He said this is because people tend to underestimate the extent to which other people care about this issue.
“And there's been some really sophisticated research that shows that when people perceive that their opinion is in the minority, that you know other people don't share their concerns about climate change, they're less likely to speak up about it and share their concerns with other people.”
President-elect Donald Trump recently appointed a fossil fuel executive as his Energy Secretary. Chris Wright, according to the Associated Press, could give fossil fuel a boost and end some climate-friendly policies.
Here is an interview on Trump's environmental track-record.
Kotcher said this might make the act of everyday Americans discussing climate change "tremendously important."
“With an administration coming in that is almost certainly to be hostile towards a lot of the actions to address climate change, It's really important to communicate about how out of step they are with Americans overall,” Kotcher said.
This even includes Republicans who support climate-friendly policies.
The good news is that many Americans are in agreement over climate-friendly policies — despite the conflict among political elites in the U.S.
“Regular everyday Americans actually have a lot of areas of agreement when it comes to their policy preferences on climate change,” he said, especially over clean air and clean water solutions that can be linked to better health.
He said the biggest divide is the political polarization around climate change. However, things like the Inflation Reduction Act from the Biden Administration included climate provisions and had bipartisan support.
“… including 70-percent of moderate Republicans and virtually all Democrats,” Kotcher said.
But while Kotcher said agreement exists about climate change, severe weather will continue without climate action and such action looks dubious under another Trump presidency.
With a loud clang, Tenbarge unlocks his new tornado shelter located on his property just west of Evansville.
It’s perched on rolling grassy property and looks like a gray utility shed. It’s solid concrete with steel rebar inside.
“The reason I thought of it with the storms and that getting more frequent, that it would be a good investment.”
He had it installed in July. There’s a folding table and chairs and even games for his grandchildren.
“My grandchildren and my daughter and them, they live local. They was thrilled to have it. We don't have basements under our homes, so they was kind of tickled to know we have some kind of setup.”
“Climate change is, is not going away,” Kotcher said. “And if anything, if action to address it is is slows down as a result of you know who's who's holding the reins of power over the next four years, then we're only more likely to see more frequent and more intense storms and extreme weather events.”
Support independent journalism today. You rely on WNIN to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Give to grow our local reporting today. Donate