WASHINGTON — An overwhelming majority of people in the country say they have recently experienced an extreme weather event, a new poll shows, and most of them attribute that to climate change.

But even as many across the country marked Earth Day on Saturday, the poll shows relatively few say they feel motivated when they talk about the issue.

The findings from Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll echo growing evidence that many individuals question their own role in combating climate change. Still, the poll suggests people are paying attention.

About half of U.S. adults say they have grown more concerned about the changing climate in the past year, and a growing number say they are talking about it.

Adriana Moreno said she feels like she’s been talking about climate change for years, but it’s only recently that the high school teacher has noticed her older family members bringing up the issue more and more — “almost every time I see them,” said Moreno, 22, a Democrat in New York.

Her family on the East Coast talks about how the seasons have changed while her family in El Salvador talks about how poorly some crops on their farm are faring. After years of hearing about Moreno’s interest in the issue, her parents have become more interested.

It’s not that they didn’t believe in climate change before, Moreno said, but it was “out of sight, out of mind.”

Overall, about 8 in 10 U.S. adults say that in the past five years they have personally felt the effects of extreme weather, such as extreme heat or drought, according to the poll. Most of them — 54% of the public overall — say what they experienced was at least partly a result of climate change. They’re not wrong, said the head of the federal agency overseeing weather and climate issues.

“It is a reality that regardless of where you are in the country, where you call home, you’ve likely experienced a high impact weather event firsthand,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Rick Spinrad said at a meteorological conference this year, noting that the United States has the most weather disasters that cost $1 billion of any nation in the world.

NOAA uses weather disasters that cost $1 billion as a measure of climate change and how it affects people. Last year there were 18 of those events, costing more than $165 billion in total and killing 474 people. That included Hurricane Ian and an ongoing drought in the West.

These types of weather events hit the nation on average once every 82 days in the 1980s, but are now smacking the country at a rate of slightly more than once every two weeks, Spinrad said.

“With a changing climate, buckle up,” Spinrad warned. “More extreme events are expected.”

The poll shows about three-quarters of U.S. adults say recent extreme weather events have had at least some influence on their beliefs about climate change.

Half of U.S. adults say they have spoken with friends and family about climate change in the past year, compared with about 4 in 10 who said the same last June.

Still, many say they rarely or never talk about the issue.

John Laubacker, 36, a truck driver from Lockport, New York, says climate is an important issue to him personally.

But he doesn’t find himself talking about it much.

Laubacker, a moderate Republican, says he finds the conversation on climate, like other issues, is dominated by those with extreme views on both sides of the aisle.

The poll finds people don’t tend to talk about climate change with people they outright disagree with on the issue.

The poll also finds few feel very hopeful or motivated when they talk about climate change; roughly half feel those at least somewhat. That’s true of anxiety and sadness as well.

Anthony Thompson, 74, a retiree and a Democrat, thinks climate change has accelerated, but he picks and chooses who he talks to about it in Jackson, Tennessee.

But if it comes up when tornadoes or hailstorms tear through their area, he offers what he’s learned as “food for thought.”

To Thompson, changes in weather have become more severe — as has his concern.

“I’m more concerned now because I think people kind of take everything for granted and I don’t think they really care, to be quite honest,” he said. “Hopefully if we concentrate on some of this stuff we can at least slow it down.”

The poll of 1,230 adults, conducted April 13-17, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.