PUBLIC OPINION - MORE POLLING RESULTS

 I am interested in finding out what the public really think about the issue of climate change, given the mass propaganda on it from the main TV news stations. There is some information in the new book by Ross Clark - "Not Zero".

In January 2021, a poll by the UN Development Programme involving 1.2 million people across 50 countries found that 64% agreed with the assertion that there is a "climate emergency". In Britain and Italy the figure was even higher at 81%.  In another poll in October 2021 by YouGov and the Cambridge Centre for Public Opinion Research, 70% agreed with the statement "I would be prepared to change my behaviour to help limit climate change".  But when it came down to specific changes they were rather less enthusiastic. Only 42% supported the ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and 19% supported a meat tax. 

The whole problem with polling is that the results can be skewed by the way the questions are asked. Look at my post on the ONS poll (here:climate science: PUBLIC VIEWS ON CLIMATE CHANGE) which showed that only  around 30% claimed they were "very worried" about climate change, leaving the other 70% as not very worried. And yet the UN poll showed that 81% agreed that there was a "climate emergency". How can anyone not be very worried, and at the same time accept there is an emergency? 

The reality is that the public's views on climate are, for the most part, very shallow. Having seen all the doom laden news items, they don't feel that they can say they are not worried, while at the same time they can see in their every day experience that there is nothing unusual happening to their own climate. Therefore they are willing to go along with the narrative of a climate emergency but not if it is going to affect them adversely.