The politics of discussing Hoosier climate change

“How ’bout this heat?”

When Hoosiers run out of meaningful things to say, they resort to the weather. The familiar cliches at least give us something that—unlike politics—we can all agree on.

Except when we can’t. A recent climate survey sent to 10,000 Hoosier households by Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute revealed political divisions so entrenched that Indiana residents with differing party affiliations no longer even appear to agree about the weather.

A South Bend winter is nothing like an Evansville winter. But our Hoosier Life Survey showed that even residents of the same city view their local climate through red or blue lenses. Indianapolis Democrats, for example, were three times likelier than their Republican neighbors to report an increase in heavy rains. Indy Democrats were also more than twice as likely to report increasingly hot weather.

What’s going on here? Social scientists have long noticed that Americans’ attitudes about the environment divide along party lines. Republicans and Democrats turn to different sources for news, carry unique values, and follow cues from their own party’s leadership.

Environmental change is so inflected with political meaning that, when university-based researchers ask Hoosiers about their experiences of environmental change, many will—quite reasonably—think, “You’re asking if I believe in ‘global warming,’ right?” Their responses, then, come framed in the political context that has, for years, dominated what would otherwise be a matter for scientific hypothesis and empirical confirmation.

Still, some good news comes out of our version of the age-old, “How ’bout the weather?” question.

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