Giving Compass' Take:

• According to a national survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 73 percent of respondents said they think global warming is happening. 

• The issue becomes that local state governments do not feel they have enough support from the federal government to address the effects of global warming. How can local politicians tap donors for access to resources and capital to fight climate change?

• Read more about how donors can tackle environmental issues. 

Findings from a national survey, Climate Change in the American Mind, indicate Americans' concern about climate change is increasing, and a growing percentage believes it is mostly caused by humans.

73% of respondents think global warming is happening, which is a 10% increase from 2015. 62% think climate change is mostly caused by humans, and 23% say it's mostly caused by natural changes in the environment. 46% of respondents said they have personally experienced the effects of global warming, and nearly one-third think climate change is affecting U.S. weather "a lot."

The survey indicates that not only is the number of Americans who think climate change is happening on the rise, but the amount of certainty people have about its occurrence also is increasing.

More than half are "extremely" or "very" sure climate change is occurring.

The number of people who think climate is mostly human caused, and the number who report having personally experienced the effects of global warming, both are at their highest points since the survey began in Nov. 2008.

Regardless of whether they agree with the concept of global warming, the data would suggest climate change is a more known and talked about issue than it was even a few years ago, no longer exclusively the realm of dedicated environmentalists. Even the federal government now has released four national climate assessments, with the most recent one last year sounding some alarms with its assertion that "all regions will be affected by climate change."

With public awareness of the issue reaching peak levels, governments are presented with the opportunity to take action now. But local governments continue to say they do not have enough federal support, and it can be challenging to devise and fund climate change mitigation strategies alone.

Read the full article about climate change by Katie Pyzyk at smartcitiesdive.com