Climate scepticism ‘on the rise’, BBC poll shows:
The number of British people who are sceptical about climate change is rising, a poll for BBC News suggests.
The Populus poll of 1,001 adults found 25% did not think global warming was happening, a rise of 8% since a similar poll was conducted in November.
The percentage of respondents who said climate change was a reality had fallen from 83% in November to 75% this month.
And only 26% of those asked believed climate change was happening and “now established as largely man-made”.
The findings are based on interviews carried out on 3-4 February.
In November 2009, a similar poll by Populus - commissioned by the Times newspaper - showed that 41% agreed that climate change was happening and it was largely the result of human activities.
See the article for the gory details.
I’m drawing attention to this simply because it serves as a reminder that the Three Stooges (China, India, and the US) don’t have a monopoly on myopic idiocy.
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February 6th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
That’s an incredible shift in opinion but I wonder how much of it is just due to the fact this winter has been particularly cold (and, of course, the fact that the shameless oafs who work for our national newspapers have been exploiting this to the full). It’ll be interesting to see how this stands up over time.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
My guess, based on nothing but watching how Americans react to such things and extrapolating to our British cousins, is that you’re right–it’s the weather.
I don’t know what’s more maddening, concluding that this change in opinion is due to a Really Stupid Reason, or not even having a guess what’s going on.
February 7th, 2010 at 7:59 am
Well,
consider the spectrum:
Hard core deniers (5%)–casual observers (70%)–’believers’ (20%)–scientists or aptly trained people in clear thinking (5%).
Obviously the majority is in the ‘casual’ camp (the term maybe ill-conceived, but anyway.)
The ‘casuals’ are open to persuasion and do not think about the science of climate change very deeply.
One very sad reading:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7017922.ece
“I thought of killing myself, says climate scandal professor Phil Jones.”
What state are we in, if we cannot distinguish decent and ambitioned people from the rest of the pack anymore?
In addition, most of them cannot distinguish between climatology and meteorology.
So what do You get then?
Opinions obviously change with the weather in the ‘casual camp’.
Add some ‘climategeate’ and ‘glaciergate’ pseudoscandals, and here You are!
My suspicion is, and I am very sorry to say that, that ‘democracy’ if not cultivated to its full potential, i.e. fully informed, rational and/or compassionate citzens,
puts the planet on risk.
I know You (Lou) are an optimist, which is ofcourse ok with me, although I consider myself a realist/pessimist who struggles to keep his midget inner optimist alive.
February 7th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Great summary, groo. The inability to distinguish weather from climate is the anchor among the “unconvinced.” I too am sadly pessimistic but as I think more about Peter Ward’s Medea Hypothesis — that using up all available resources through population feedback is inevitable by life’s molecular design — I’m finding ways to live with it. I believe one of the reasons we’ve yet to hear from other civilizations is that species intelligence (at our particular level) isn’t necessarily a beneficial adaptation for species longevity. Environmental destruction seems to be par for life’s course.