I came across what in my opinion is a surprising survey this morning. It reveals a stunning increase in the awareness on climate change among the populations of 47 participating nations (for list, see footnote in pdf-doc linked below). True, only internet users in those nations that participated contributed to this survey of consumers and their confidences – but I don’t think that negates the findings and overall trends.
Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce the very interesting table published in the report, as it is copyrighted – as well as in a pdf (not too big, only 0.2MB) – please follow this link.
The survey is made every six months, and compares data from last October and this April. Last October, only 7% of the global respondents considered climate change as one of their two largest concerns for the future. Not too impressive, I thought. But look at the trend! In April this year, the data show an increase of almost 130% to that figure. Sixteen percent now consider it among their two largest concerns. And concern for climate change now moves up to fourth on the overall ranking – behind economy, health and job security.
From Nielsen’s Press Release
“We have not witnessed such a dramatic increase in public attention for climate change since the late 1980s. Among a number of influences in the last six months, there have been reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Stern Review, coupled with freak weather patterns like floods in southern Africa to decreased snowfall in the Swiss Alps; and unprecedented global media coverage on climate change which has increased public awareness and concern” said Dr. Max Boykoff, James Martin 21st Century School Research Fellow, Environmental Change Institute.
Boykoff references the IPCC reports as a contributing factor to the dramatic change. But the April survey was even before the release of the IPCC Working Group III report in May. We have just also celebrated the World Environmental Day and seen new reports that the ice in the Arctic melts at an even faster rate than predicted earlier, even by the IPCC. All factors that should increase awareness even more in the next survey coming October.
While the highest rate of decline in any of the models was 5.4 percent per decade, satellite measurements, which are considered more reliable, showed that September ice actually declined at a rate of about 7.8 percent per decade during the same period.
“This suggests that current model projections may in fact provide a conservative estimate of future Arctic change, and that the summer Arctic sea ice may disappear considerably earlier than IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] projections,” said study team member Julienne Stroeve of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The shrinking ice may actually be about 30 years ahead of model predictions, meaning the Arctic could be ice free in the summer earlier than the IPCC’s predicted timeframe of 2050-2100.
Interesting to note from the survey tables that most respondents believe that the individual can contribute very little to the solution of the problem. The responses show that we put most of our faith and responsibility upon our governments, and then, to some extent, on the corporations.
This suggests that we need to strengthen government and intra-governmental statutory bodies (and certainly remove the cronies installed to protect corporate interests), as well as support the multitude of Non-Governmental Organizations that have broad, or specialized competencies in the environmental area.
