Brits slow on Climate Change
The UK has the lowest level of people saying that they are personally making a significant effort to reduce their carbon output.
Only 19% are taking action, compared to levels above 40% in developing countries.
Chris Goodall, author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, has distilled some international market research by HSBC. He reports on their 2007 survey, carried out in nine major countries around the world. Called the ‘Climate Confidence Index’, it offers many surprising results.
Worldwide Survey
Concern about climate change is far higher in developing countries than in the UK or the USA. Almost 60% of people in Brazil, Mexico and India see global warming as one of the most pressing problems the world faces, compared to little more than 20% in the UK. Broadly speaking, the richer countries tend to see terrorism as a bigger threat to the world than climate change.
Importantly, those countries also think that the world is more likely to find ways to avert climate change problems. But Britons are fatalistic about whether global warming will be stopped, with only 6% of people saying they believe we will stop climate change compared to 45% in India and 39% in China.
“We Need a War Room”
Richard Branson isn’t immobilised.
He’s describing it as “a crisis that is bigger than World War I and II combined” during a U.N. General Assembly debate on climate change, New York.
On Monday, Branson called for the creation of a global environmental “war room”. By bringing together scientists, engineers, government agencies and civil society, it would identify the best ideas for tackling climate change and devise implementation plans in partnership with the United Nations and others.
“History has taught us that, in times of peril, when all seems lost, bringing together the greatest minds … to work together, with one common goal - survival - is the most effective way to prevail,” said the entrepreneur, who’s also offering a $25 million prize for scientists to find a way to remove carbon dioxide from the environment.
Ideas, anyone?
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