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How Massachusetts feels about climate change in 12 graphics

Erosion threatens this house atop a Dune in TruroJohn Tlumacki/Globe Staff/The Boston Globe

The percentage of Massachusetts residents who believe climate change is a very serious concern has decreased since 2019.

That’s just one finding from a new poll, a collaboration of The Boston Globe and the MassINC Polling Group.

MassINC has surveyed residents about climate change periodically since 2011. For the new poll, the firm surveyed 1,890 Massachusetts residents between March 23 and April 5 on the phone and online.

The new analysis is a trove of information on residents’ changing attitudes toward environmental policies. Read the full results of the poll here.

Here are 12 of the biggest takeaways from the new survey.

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The state’s blueprint for cutting carbon emissions depends on converting homes and cars to renewable electric power, but many Massachusetts residents have no plans to move away from fossil fuel-powered cars and homes.

Most Massachusetts residents think global warming is either already happening or likely to affect the state in the next five years, but they still see climate as less urgent than other issues, and climate policy isn’t driving most people’s voting decisions.

There is significant support for policy changes, rebates, and subsidies that would nudge the state away from fossil fuels.

Oversamples were conducted to obtain a total at least 250 Black, 250 Latino, and 200 Asian residents, and results within race and ethnicity were weighted by age, gender, and education level and then combined and weighted by race, age, gender, education, geography, and party to reflect the demographics of the Commonwealth’s adult population. Margin of error: +/- 2.6%.

Read the full results of the poll here.


John Hancock can be reached at john.hancock@globe.com. Follow him @Hancock_JohnD. Dharna Noor can be reached at dharna.noor@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @dharnanoor.