While the world at large is moving away from climate change denial and toward coming to terms with the hard facts, there are still people out there filled with a lot of doubts, or worse.
Texas Electricity Ratings has compiled some telling stats and facts that reveal different countries’ stance on the matter, as well as the possible roots of the stubborn refusal to look the truth about climate change in the eyes.
Various polls can attest to the positive fact that Americans have been increasingly worried about climate change since 2008.
For example, a nationally representative survey from Yale University and George Mason University from December 2018 defines 69% of Americans as “somewhat worried” and 29% as “very worried.” What’s even more revealing is the rapid pace at which this sentiment spreads – in just 8 months, between the previous survey in April 2018 and this one, the “very worried” Americans have gone up by a whole 8%.
The increasing worry about climate change basically means increasing belief in it. One of the main things that drives the percentage of believing Americans up is science, backed up by real-life examples in the form of extreme weather, as a national poll from the University of Chicago and the Associated Press that was carried out this year finds that this is what convinced 48% of them.
What’s even more telling of the overall outlook on the issue is the fact that even some Republicans, who have notoriously been the sternest opposition of climate change, are starting to think twice and even join in the global fight against it.
“There has been a rhetorical shift among elected Republicans on climate change,” says Sam Ori, executive director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.
A prime example of this shift is Sen. John Barrasso, the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, focusing his efforts toward an innovative approach to curbing greenhouse gases emissions, considering he was once quite unsure about the human contribution to climate change.
Furthermore, Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has practically directly impeded action against climate change in the past by chairing various rollbacks and revisions of climate change-conscious regulations, has now completely changed his tone when speaking about the issue, quantifying his worry as a 8 or 9 on a scale to 10.
Surprisingly, given the info mentioned above, the U.S. has the highest percentage of climate change deniers, or more precisely, deniers of the human role in it, in the rich world, and the third highest percentage in the world as a whole, surpassed only by Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
According to a survey that involved 23 countries, carried out by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, 13% of Americans believe that “human activity is not responsible at all” for climate change.
With that being said, the rest of the survey’s findings are more in line with other statistics, with 40% of respondents at least partly attributing climate change to human activity, and 30% pointing our role as the main cause.
Another fascinating pattern of thought amidst Americans that surfaced in the survey is their tendency to buy into climate-related conspiracy theories, with a whole 17% agreeing with the statement that “the idea of manmade global warming is a hoax that was invented to deceive people.” This belief increases with age and conservative political views, with a staggering 52% of “very rightwing” Americans being adamant that global warming is a hoax.
The silver lining here is that even in the country with the most climate change deniers, the prevailing view of the issue is the clear-sighted one, and it is starting to reveal itself even to the opposing side.
Amidst the leading countries in Europe that were surveyed by YouGov, climate change denial, full-on or partial, is much rarer, with less than 10% believing in either form of it. The only country that has a percentage higher than 10 is Poland with 12%.
Not only does the UK have the least amount of people who deny climate change, according to the YouGov survey, but it also seems to be one, if not the most eager nation to act against it.
Just at the beginning of May, the UK parliament defined the current global situation as a “climate emergency,” while the UK’s government’s statutory advisor, the Committee on Climate Change, proposed plans of action to bring down its greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.
Despite being far from where it needs to be in terms of its climate change views, Australia is getting better in that regard, which is something, considering how dominated the country is by media that contradicts the science behind climate change.
Overall, more and more people, on both an individual and government level, are finally seeing climate change for what it is – a matter that’s very real, very man-made, and very urgent.
Umar Bajwa is a blogger and professional content writer loves to write about lifestyle, fitness and health-related topics.