Most individuals assume local weather change is severe, however different points are extra necessary – watts with that?
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to New Zealand researcher Sam Crawley, people who support the market economy are also less likely to have authoritarian or exclusive attitudes towards minorities to deal with climate change.
Most people consider climate change a serious problem, but consider other problems to be more important. This has an impact on climate policy
May 19, 2021 01:01 p.m. AEST
Sam Crawley
Researcher, Transport – Victoria University of Wellington
The direct rejection of climate change is now relatively rare. Most people believe that it is happening and that it is a serious problem. However, many other issues – healthcare and economics – are considered more important.
This means that people cannot simply be classified as deniers or believers in relation to climate change. In my research, I focused on understanding the complexities of climate opinion in the face of the slow political response to climate change around the world.
I did an online survey in the UK and found that 78% of respondents were extremely or fairly certain that climate change was happening.
When asked about eight topics (climate change, health care, education, crime, immigration, economy, terrorism and poverty) that are most important to least important to the country, 38% rated climate change as least important, and another 15% as important seventh out of eight.
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Less than 5% of the 3,445 respondents in the New Zealand election survey in 2017 said the environment was the most important electoral problem and an even smaller number made explicit mention of climate change.
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People who support the market economy, take an authoritarian stance, or take an exclusive stance towards minorities are also less vulnerable to climate change.
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Read more: https://theconversation.com/most-people-consider-climate-change-a-serious-issue-but-rank-other-problems-as-more-important-that-affects-climate-policy- 161080
Until activists come up with evidence that there is indeed a climate crisis, I suspect their cause will continue to struggle to attract the attention of ordinary people. Losing your job is a crisis. A positive Covid test and a persistent cough are terrifying. A few degrees of warming feel like summer.
As for the “free market economy” rift, if climate activists stop promoting command economy communism as a solution to climate change, say if more activists could support a right-wing solution to emissions reductions, such as removing bureaucratic barriers to a new low-carbon nuclear plant they get more engagement from the right. But then climate activism would probably make no sense.
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