Overview of NECAP Public Polls on Climate Change Adaptation in Wells

Background

Prior to running the New England Climate Adaptation Project (NECAP) role-play simulation workshops, project staff commissioned an independent firm to randomly poll 100 Wells residents via landline. This poll (Poll 1), conducted in May 2013, established baseline opinions about climate change risk and adaptation in the town. Following the NECAP workshops, a second public poll (Poll 2) was conducted in May 2014 to see what, if anything, had shifted in residents’ opinions about their town's climate risks, level of preparedness, and capacity to address potential impacts.1 This report summarizes key findings from the two polls for local officials and other interested stakeholders in Wells. These key findings are discussed individually in the sections that follow and a brief summary of all findings is provided in the conclusion.

Demographics

The age and gender breakdown for both Poll 1 and Poll 2 was similar. However, since the distribution for age and gender in Poll 1 and Poll 2 were slightly different than the population of Wells at large, the poll data were weighted for age and gender to reflect a more demographically representative sample.

There were a few demographic differences between Polls 1 and 2. Respondents in Poll 2 had more formal education, less membership in environmental organization, and were more likely to be self-identified liberals, as compared to the Poll 1 respondents. Gender, age, and length of residence were very similar between the two polls. Neither poll well captured the perspectives of part-time or seasonal residents in Wells, likely because the polls were conducted via landline. Only three percent of Poll 2 respondents stated that they attended a NECAP workshop over the past year, indicating a very minor overlap between the Poll 2 population and the NECAP workshop population for Wells.

High Levels of Climate Change Concern

Both Poll 1 and Poll 2 found high levels of concern about the possible impacts of climate change on the Town of Wells, with about two-thirds of respondents in both polls saying they are somewhat to very concerned about local climate change impacts (Figure 1).