Measuring Nantucket Attitudes on Climate Change Part I
Remain conducted a two-part survey measuring attitudes on climate change within the Nantucket community between 2021 and 2022, run in part with the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge and conducted by Boston-based consulting firm EBP. The Envision Resilience Challenge model, a coastal resilience initiative that connects academia, local leadership and community members, first launched in the spring of 2021 as the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge, with the goal of inspiring coastal communities to envision innovative adaptations to sea level rise.
The first survey, conducted in January 2021 in support of the Envision Resilience Nantucket Challenge and in partnership with ACKlimate, was conducted by Boston-based consulting firm EBP. The survey found that Nantucketers are far more likely to be alarmed about climate change than the national average, 73 percent compared to 26 percent reported in the April 2020 Yale Program on Climate Change Communication SASSY Survey. The report concluded that Nantucket respondents are well aware of the economic impacts that climate change and sea level rise will bring to the island, are ready to take individual action and support actions by local government and businesses to prepare for those impacts.
Of the 309 survey respondents, 56.6 percent are year-round residents, 36.9 percent are part-time or seasonal residents and 6.5 percent are frequent visitors. A combined 88 percent of respondents expressed that they are either “alarmed” or “concerned” about the impacts of climate change on the Nantucket community, with just 6% indicating that they are “cautious,” 1% indicating that they are “disengaged,” 2% indicating that they are “doubtful” and 3% indicating that they are “dismissive.”
A report on part II of the two-part survey, Measuring Nantucket Attitudes on Climate Change Part II, can be found here, with a quick fact sheet available here.
