Archive for March, 2010

Don’t leave climate change to the politicians

Posted in Climate Sock, Climategate, Politics on March 29th, 2010 by leo – 4 Comments

We saw in December that governments seem to be expected largely to take responsibility for dealing with climate change, rather than to encourage people to be responsible themselves.

This struck me then as a problem, and data from January’s Mori poll adds weight to this thought, suggesting that there is a real risk in politicians being the main group that’s heard to talk about climate change. But the results also give us some of the most striking results I’ve seen to suggest that the British public are in fact pretty concerned about climate change.

At the end of their questionnaire, Mori asked the respondents their level of agreement with a series of statements, covering perceptions of climate change, personal responsibility, and the role of government. What the responses suggest is that people are worried about climate change, but are highly suspicious of politicians’ motives when they hear them talking about it.

The statements around the importance and impact of climate change indicate that levels of strong scepticism among the public remain relatively low. More than twice as many strongly disagree that climate change is “scaremongering”, and very few accept the argument that climate change is not necessarily bad for the planet.

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Climate Sock on Left Foot Forward

Posted in Climate Sock, Politics on March 25th, 2010 by leo – Comments Off on Climate Sock on Left Foot Forward

Left Foot Forward have published this Climate Sock article on the electoral impact of climate change.

The general election: it’s the climate, stupid?

Posted in Climate Sock, Politics on March 15th, 2010 by leo – Comments Off on The general election: it’s the climate, stupid?

If the last three months are anything to go by, the main battlegrounds for the general election will be the economy and the personality of the party leaders. But that doesn’t mean that climate change will necessarily be sidelined.

In previous elections, the climate hasn’t figured in any meaningful way. Yet, the polls suggest that it has the potential to play a bigger part in this election than it has in any previously. And while for Labour and the Lib Dems the climate presents an opportunity, for the Tories it could expose a damaging fault-line in the party.

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The limited impact of Climategate

Posted in Climate Sock, Climategate, Media on March 4th, 2010 by leo – 7 Comments

A new Mori poll has just been published, which gives more data on the impact of the recent stories about climate science. The most notable headline from the new survey confirms what we saw in the BBC poll last month: that belief in climate change has fallen over the last year.

Yet, belief that climate change is a reality is still high, despite this drop. Indeed, the changes in public attitudes appear so far to have been restricted to this question of whether climate change is real: there has been less movement in questions about what causes climate change, and how it can be stopped.

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