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Climate change attitudes

Dane Pflueger | Thursday 30th July 2009

A recent poll by World Public Opinion asked 60 % of the world's population what they think of climate change. It asked firstly, 'do you think your government places the highest priority on addressing climate change?', then 'do you think your government should place the highest priority on addressing climate change?' and finally, 'do you think that the average person in your country thinks that the government should place the highest priority on addressing climate change?'.

Three very interesting questions. And you can see a full breakdown of the responses on the Guardian website.

You really must have a look for yourself to interpret the results.

But one fact really stuck out in my mind as I scrolled through the results:it seems that very few people think their country is addressing climate change the way that they think it should.Some countries that are seen to place an emphasis on climate change, like Germany, face backlash from those--probably facing higher energy prices--who think that it shouldn't be a top priority. While other countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong have residents believing firmly in the cause but with little government response. The two outliers are China and Iraq. In China, according to residents, both they and their government give climate change top priority. In Iraq, unsurprisingly, the people and the government seem to agree that there are other more pressing topics to focus on (although a recent LATimes article shows the huge environmental problem there).

Have a look for yourself and share what you see in the numbers.

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Steven Douglas 13 November 2009

"...addressing climate change..."

How nice and slippery. As one who sees grotesque exaggerations regarding claims of attribution of human CO2 emissions as being substantially responsible for recent changes in climate, I could answer ALL of the questions posed in the affirmative.

Yes, my government does needs to (finally) "address" climate change. That ceased abruptly when all debates about the causes of climate change were decreed to have been settled.

Address climate change? Yes, that would be nice. For a change.

Have a nice, albeit nauseatingly predictable, backlash.