HLS reports capture Hoosier climate change views in Indiana metro areas

Many of Indiana’s most populous metropolitan areas have recently adopted or are in the process of creating a plan to reduce local greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. Now a new series of reports can help local leaders and residents get a sense of what their neighbors think about the changing environment, how they are preparing, and what resilience policies they support.

The findings offer new insights into Indiana residents’ attitudes about climate change at the metro level and point toward tailored strategies to boost community resilience. The reports are a product of the Hoosier Life Survey (HLS), a statewide survey on environmental attitudes conducted by Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute.

Metro areas covered in the series include, Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, New Albany-Jeffersonville, Northwest Indiana, and South Bend-Mishawaka.

“In Indiana, local governments, organizations, and individual citizens have already begun to prepare their communities for the impacts of climate change and to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in order to lessen further change,” said Matthew Houser an IU sociologist and Environmental Resilience Institute research fellow who co-led the survey. “Our latest reports are designed to support these efforts and give a clearer understanding of how specific Hoosier communities view climate change. Local policymakers and stakeholders across the state can use these views to craft more targeted outreach strategies.”

In addition to providing insights on local attitudes, the metro series also allows for general comparisons between Hoosiers cities and between metro areas and the entire state. For example, survey findings indicate that South Bend-Mishawaka residents express relatively low levels of belief that climate change is happening compared to other metro areas. In Fort Wayne, residents show higher levels of trust in neighbors, family, and friends regarding how to prepare for extreme weather. Other metro areas place greater trust in scientists.

“Each of these reports gives a snapshot of how the people in a particular area view environmental change,” said Eric Sandweiss IU professor of history and co-leader of the survey. “We found many similarities between metro areas in terms of what Hoosiers believe, whom they trust, what they’ve experienced, what they’re doing, and what policies they support. We also found some notable differences. The stories told here show that not every Hoosier city is experiencing environmental change in the same way, and that residents of one city may not react the same to proposed solutions as those of another.”

View the metro reports

View the Hoosier Life Survey Opinion Map

About the Hoosier Life Survey

Conducted between August and December 2019, the Hoosier Life Survey captures how Indiana residents perceive environmental changes, how residents are being affected in their homes and communities, how Hoosiers are preparing, and what they expect in the future. The survey was sent to 10,000 Hoosiers across eight pre-defined regions in the state to ensure adequate geographic coverage.

About the Prepared for Environmental Change Initiative

The Indiana University Prepared for Environmental Change Grand Challenge initiative brings together a broad, bipartisan coalition of government, business, nonprofit and community leaders to help Indiana better prepare for the challenges that environmental changes bring to our economy, health, and livelihood. Announced in May 2017, Prepared for Environmental Change is working to deliver tailored and actionable solutions to communities across the state of Indiana.

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