Climate scepticism ‘on the rise’, BBC poll shows
The number of British people who are sceptical about climate change is rising, a poll for BBC News suggests.
The Populus poll of 1,001 adults found 25% did not think global warming was happening, a rise of 8% since a similar poll was conducted in November.
The percentage of respondents who said climate change was a reality had fallen from 83% in November to 75% this month.
And only 26% of those asked believed climate change was happening and “now established as largely man-made”.
The findings are based on interviews carried out on 3-4 February.
In November 2009, a similar poll by Populus – commissioned by the Times newspaper – showed that 41% agreed that climate change was happening and it was largely the result of human activities.
“It is very unusual indeed to see such a dramatic shift in opinion in such a short period,” Populus managing director Michael Simmonds told BBC News.
“The British public are sceptical about man’s contribution to climate change – and becoming more so,” he added.
“More people are now doubters than firm believers.”
Read the complete story at the BBC
See the report in PDF format:
A typical weasel-worded question from the Biased Broadcasting Corporation, to increase the number of ‘yes’ answers. They asked:
“”Do you think Global Warming is taking place””
Well, even many WUWTers would answer yes to that one. Over what time-scale, chum? And what was causing it, mate?
The un-biased question should have been:
“”Do you think Anthropogenic Global Warming is taking place””
On second thoughts, this is the British general public. So how about:
“”Do you think Man-made Global Warming is taking place””
.
Anthony and Steven et al having a collosal and positive impact for science. So proud of you guys.
The AGWers have Climate Munchhausen’s Syndrome – they want the climate to be ‘unwell’ to get attention for themselves.
Sorry to go off topic and at the risk of sounding rather stupid but what is the % of the earth’s surface that is populated by man.
.
Just in case there is any confusion here. The biased question in the first graph is from the Biased Broadcasting Corporation.
The more balanced questions in the second graph are from The Times newspaper.
.
Anyone here in the 25% percent who think the climate isn’t changing?
Also, it doesn’t have to be ‘doubters’ and ‘believers’. Just because you don’t ‘believe’ doesn’t mean you doubt. It might mean you don’t know.
When you consider the constant exposure that the British public have had to alarmist propaganda, it is very reassuring to think that only 26% of those polled believe that “Climate change is happening and is now established as largely man-made”.
I wonder if they live in East Anglia?
When Roger Harrabin asked for comment from WUWT I sent him an email reminding him of his past comments including “climate change deniers”, extinction of Polar Bears, commercial Arctic expeditions (failed), sceptics being funded by Big Oil when America fund public research to the tune of $4bn and John Christy saying that even if America built 1000 nuclear reactors all functioning by 2020 it would only make 1/70th of a degree difference. Rogers reply was “some commentators have managed to avoid insult, you are now on the filter”. What else would you expect from an organisation that has become either by want, persuasion or demand a full time propaganda outlet for those who believe or want us to believe for whatever purpose that there is a proven connection between a rise in Co2 and warming and that climate change – whatever that general term describes – only happened during the last 157 years and anything that occurred prior to that date is inadmissable as evidence because it doesnt suit their argument. The question remains, why does anything want to whip up all of this hysteria, dont we have enough problems to cope with that really do exist and are not figments of some twerps obsessive desire for power and influence Al Gore for example.
David Wells
Recorded UK temperatures have oscillated, during last 400 years with a period of about 50+ years (synchronized with the NAO?). While in the long term winters’ temps have risen (0.4C/century), summers’ have hardly moved (0.05C/century).
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CETt.htm
This graph also shows that UK is currently entering the ‘next 50 year’ cooling period.
If so the government would do well to start concerning itself with reliability of its energy supplies rather than the nebulous CO2 saga. If CO2 indeed contributes to the warming, perhaps its time to build more coal burning power stations, increasing UK energy capacity and of course more CO2 the better.
More graphs at: http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/GandF.htm
@ur momisugly Jack Hughes (01:40:37) :
“The AGWers have Climate Munchhausen’s Syndrome”
Surely you meant Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy…
The BBC shows by that question that they are the “PRAVDA” of the UK.
Same as NRK in Norway. “Pravda” of Norway.
O/T They should try to re-engage the public by telling more positive stories about the benefits of a carbon-free economy.
I don’t think you’ve done a good job of selling how amazingly good those figures are for the sceptics.
73% of people in the UK think that either ‘climate change’ is not happening (sic, presumably they mean warming) or that it may be happening due to reasons other than man. Only 26% TWENTY SIX, now believe that AGW is now established as man-made.
Only a quarter of people believe the propaganda that the science is settled. That is about the number of people who would be inclined to believe so for other political reasons (I would say around 20-25% of the UK population are left-wing, pro-statists). Their propaganda has utterly failed, in a country where the government has been pushing this stuff like no other. Game over.
People get excitedly by the Himalayan Glaciers and Amazon forest boobs, by the IPCC.
A much bigger clanger is shown in the diagram ipcc_fig1-2.
In the diagram EM radiation is shown in and about the surface of the Earth.
In an effort to balance the energy from the Suns Radiative Balance with the Earth.
What they don’t seem to comprehend is that EM radiation has no fixed direction ,it can be reflected and refracted.
Going by their diagram the Sun provides 342 w/m2 to earths surface.
the same square metre provides 168+324 down and 350+40 up.
Remember that the photons do not worry about direction this means that the available energy just above the surface is 900w/m2 .
The energy moving around at the surface of the Earth is almost three times the input energy from the Sun.
Put another way a double sided solar panel raised say 2 metres above the ground could make use of this plentiful free energy.
Would it work? – well according to the IPCC, “the Physics is incontrovertible thousands of peer reviewed scientists…..zzzzz”
Lucy (01:42:25):
“…what is the % of the earth’s surface that is populated by man.”
I’ve been to the Isle of Man. It was OK, but I would have much preferred going to the Isle of Women.
I assume you meant the area of the planet covered by humans of all three sexes [Mrs Smokey is a Trisexual; she’ll try anything]. I don”t have the answer to that ready, but I do have some perspective on the false alarm that human activity is able to cause climate change:
Asumptions:
6.7 billion humans in the world
Average mass of a human is approx 65kg (Wikipedia says that the mean for the UK and USA is around 75kg; I assume most of the world is lighter than us). The mean density of a person is 1g/cm3
So humans mass totals 6.7 billion people x 65kg/person = 4.355×10^11 kg
At 1g/cm3, this mass takes up 4.355×10^11 litres = 4.355×10^8 cubic meters
Now we plug this value into the formula linking the volume of a sphere with its radius:
Volume = 4/3 * radius^3
Therefore:
Radius^3 = Volume / ( (4/3) *pi)
Radius^3 = 4.355×10^8 / (1.3333333 x π [pi])
Radius^3 = 1.0397×10^8
Radius = 470.21 meters
Diameter = 940.43 meters
Therefore, all of humanity’s 6.7 billion bodies would fit into a sphere less than 1 km wide.
The rest of the world can be occupied by polar bears, and class is dismissed. Have a nice weekend.
Here’s another. You might like to vote:
http://polldaddy.com/p/2437952
Our sole AGW proponent in the pub has just arrived back from a month in sunny Egypt with the astonishing news that “man-made global warming is proved. All the cold weather just proves that the actions following Kyoto have already had the effect of cooling the planet!”
We were all lost for an adequate answer.
“Lucy (01:42:25) :
Sorry to go off topic and at the risk of sounding rather stupid but what is the % of the earth’s surface that is populated by man.”
7/10th’s of the surface is water, so that’s a bit limiting. Large blobs of land are uninhabitalbe without special equipment, such as Antarctica. But then every single person on Earth could stand on the Isle of Wight, bit tight, but it could be done.
Insects account for more biomass on Earth than all other speicies combined.
Thomas
“73% of people in the UK think that either ‘climate change’ is not happening (sic, presumably they mean warming) or that it may be happening due to reasons other than man. Only 26% TWENTY SIX, now believe that AGW is now established as man-made.”
Erm, no. Those possibilities were covered by other statements. 25% think it isn’t happening , presumably at all. Well, either that or they’re smart enough to understand the global AGW conspiracy but not smart enough to understand a 4 statement poll.
“Action is urgently needed,” Professor Watson warned. “We need the public to understand that climate change is serious so they will change their habits and help us move towards a low carbon economy” (from the BBC online article.)
Bob Watson, Ed Miliband, Lord Smith and all the others whose careers are predicated on the reality of AGW certainly “need” the public to go along with the charade in order to help keep them (and their ambitions) afloat. On the other hand, increasing numbers of us are deciding we do not “need” to change our habits (euphemism for embracing poverty) or move to a low carbon economy either (shorthand for embracing Third World conditions.) All the terrible urgency and the “need” for action has been channelled in one direction only, to enrich and empower those to whom the public fear of climate change has been manna from heaven – up until now.
So I understand the uncomfortable thought processes behind your sentences perfectly, my dear Watson. It’s elementary, you might say.
If they wanted to base articles on surveys and polls they should go the whole hog. The numbers will reveal that more people believe in ghosts and UFOs than the neo-pagan religion of catastrophic manmade global warming.
OT: But not by much!
Sitting here with my 88 year old father having a coffee and a “debate” has just been on on Sky News about climategate. Dad’s response was:
[snip – sorry but that’s a little too hostile for this blog]
It’s just as well he has mellowed in his old age.
Weird!
A few days the Indian government were telling Pachi the facts of life. Now apparently he is a hero again.
A classic oriental stitch up over ‘face’ I suspect.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8499702.stm
@richard Tyndall
“If people are becoming convinced that we are not seeing warming – natural warming as a result of the move out of the last glacial period – then it actually makes the task of combating the AGW fraud all the harder. I am very pleased that people are more sceptical of man’s contribution but it would be far better if they were more aware of just how lucky we have been as a species to live in a period of relative climate stability and how quickly that might, quite naturally, change.”
I very much agree with you on this Richard. What strikes me most about populist warmist attitudes is that there seems to be this stunningly ignorant notion that climate does *not change unless the hand of man makes it do so. Instead of showing schoolkids Gore’s propaganda films, schools should actually be teaching their pupils that climate *is change and, as well, demonstrating that argument both through science teaching and also history teaching.
In Britain, this simply does not happen and, probably, might well result in those teaching in this way being silenced or sacked. Our public education system has become an agent of personal and political control. It no longer teaches our children to question but directs them to belief and acceptance, not scepticism. That is one of the most central problems we now face in achieving wider public understanding of the actual position. It is not surprising that Citizen Charles Windsor pours scorn on the Enlightenment. He and other warmists are the outriders for a new medievalism of dogma and control. We can only pray that they’re a forlorn hope, soon to be broken on the solid shieldwall of reason.
“Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself riding through green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled; for you are in natural variability…. “
The question “Do you think global warming is taking place?” is very unclear. Like most people here, I believe that some amount of warming did occur in the last century. But I also believe that there has been no global warming over the last six or seven years, and that in fact there may have been a small amount of cooling over that period. So how do I answer that question?
Strictly speaking, my answer would have to be ‘no’, because I don’t believe global warming is happening right now. But that answer would be interpreted as a denial of all global warming, which would be nonsense.
Still, the results of the poll, which is consistent with others both in the US and the UK, is very encouraging. It means that on all the important climate change questions the sceptics are the main stream, and it is the Gores, Hansens and Manns of this world who are in the minority.
Hopefully next time the poll will make a distinction between 20th century warming and what’s happening right now.
Chris