There are a handful of polls and surveys making the rounds lately, so let’s take a look at what they do and don’t show.
A survey published in Climatic Change reports that Pope Francis’s big push for environmental awareness last year didn’t do much to turn the tide here in the US. It seems that those who were already opposed to climate action were more so after his message and even downgraded his credibility, while those who accept reality were buoyed by his endorsement of science. But as pointed out at FiveThirtyEight, the survey was taken just two weeks after the Laudato Si encyclical was released. Polling out of Yale conducted four months after the initial publication shows an impressive 13 point increase in the number of Catholics who know climate change is happening. So it looks like the message made an impact on American Catholics, just not in its first two weeks.
Globally, an annual international UN poll puts climate action last on a list of people’s priorities, again giving fodder for deniers. But it’s a bit silly to separate climate action from the many issues on the list that climate change impacts- food supplies, water availability, energy, etc. For example, if the number of people worried about climate change were combined with those who are concerned about protecting forests, rivers and oceans, which climate action would obviously help, then that broader environmental protection issue would be one of the top concerns.
If we went one step further and folded in the “reliable energy at home” answer, then the resulting climate and energy category would be up top. And since climate action will also protect food supplies, the “affordable and nutritious food” concern is also a climate concern.
Admittedly, that’s stretching things a bit. But climate change is an issue that takes a toll on many others, so distinguishing it from its impacts seems somewhat arbitrary.
Speaking of somewhat arbitrary polling- clowns! As HotWhopper points out among a larger discussion- including something we’ve also noticed, a waning amount of noteworthy activity in the deniersphere- a recent poll by Vox shows that Americans are more scared of clowns than they are of climate change. The clowns at WUWT and Breitbart of course champion this factoid. But Vox’s odd poll also shows that people are more scared of clowns than terrorism, and that climate change is scarier than the common phobias of needles, heights and that most obscure and rare fear: dying.
Because apparently people would rather be dead than have to deal with climate change or clowns.
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