Benny Peiser: The Reasons For Britain’s Climate Fatigue
Overwhelming Majority Of Conservative MPs Are Climate Sceptics
PRWeek, 10 September 2014 Alex Benady and John Owens Nearly three-quarters of Conservative MPs do not accept that climate change has been proven to be caused by human activity, according to a new poll.
The survey of 119 MPs from all parties was commissioned by PRWeek from Populus to establish the attitudes of parliamentarians to climate change and environmental issues as part of a special report on the subject.
Only 51 per cent of MPs agree that it is an established fact that global warming is largely man made, though there are substantial differences between parties.
Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of Labour MPs agree that man-made global warming is now an established scientific fact compared with 30 per cent of Tory MPs.
Over half (53 per cent) of Conservative MPs agree with the statement that “it has not yet been conclusively proved that climate change is man made”.
A further 18 per cent agree that “man-made climate change is environmentalist propaganda”.
Climate change has fallen down the political agenda in the past five years, said half of all MPs, compared with 23 per cent who believe the opposite.
2) Benny Peiser: The Reasons For Britain’s Climate Fatigue
The public’s obsession with climate change, a common feature during much of the 1980s and 1990s, has been waning rapidly. The reason for growing climate fatigue is not so much a PR failure. After all, hundreds of millions are being spent each year around the world by thousands of NGOs, green energy lobbies and green government ministers.
It is rather that reality no longer corresponds with alarmist predictions that were issued just a few years ago.
The novelty of global warming and the habitual alarm have lost their original shock value. Most people have begun to take climate scares with a sizeable pinch of salt.
The climate campaign was founded on two fears: that global warming was an urgent threat that needed to be prevented imminently and at all costs; and second, that the world was running out of fossil fuels. Both assumptions turned out to be wrong.
The shale revolution means the world is swimming in abundant gas and oil. But by far the biggest problem facing the climate agenda is the global warming ‘pause’.
The average global surface temperature has not risen for 17 years, an inconvenient fact that no scientist had predicted.
If the warming standstill continues for much longer, climate scientists and models on which much of international climate policy is based will continue to haemorrhage credibility.
The climate campaign has become unpopular among voters who are hostile to green taxes and rising energy costs. Governments are seen to be unwilling to agree to drastic solutions that are detrimental to economic growth.
No communication skills can revive the success of bygone scaremongering as long as the actual climate does not conform to apocalyptic predictions made just a few years ago.
Whilst this is obviously good news, I wonder when it’ll translate into a reduction from the criminal 500 and 285 ukp per annum car tax for my Jag and 911 respectively. Some whacko set them at a punitive level to “stop climate change”
I presume you mean GBP or pounds sterling. There is no currency called ukp. Maybe UKIP use it , I don’t know.
And here’s me sitting in an investment bank in London! You’re absolutely right of course. However the point remains this is a criminal amount of tax to pay for nothing
OK Bob wins. The Escort joke was brilliant!
Richard
Andy, I’m sure you’ll get a lot of sympathy for having to pay taxes on your “Jag and 911…” that’s rough!
Yes a little irony was intended
Hey Legend, first they come after your Jag, next they come after your Escort. They never stop.
Well played, Bob. And I should pay taxes for my Escort too…you know, roads, bridges, and all that nonsense.
Like all kinds of BS in the UK, depends when it was made. If you, say, had a 1958 S2 LandRover, you would not only not have to pay the car tax for emissions, you would also not need to wear a seatbelt. (The seatbelt law was true in the 1980’s for old vehicles when i lived there). Silly, but taxable. I know so many people in the UK dropping their pertol cars for diesel.
The ceaseless wolf-crying has done it’s job.
Even if warming does pick up at this stage a large number of people will just turn off. They’ve overplayed thier dishonest hand.
Worse, if they do ever stop crapping on about CO2 and get back to campaigning about REAL pollution problems, it is likely to gain the same response.
The enviros have done us all and the environment they claim to case so much about a great dis-service with all this stupidity.
Fear does not sell. Motivational psychologists have pointed that out many times. Look at the insurance ads on TV such as GEICO’s. The insurance industry leaned that lesson a long time ago.
But fear sells very well for Big Green groups when they trawl for donations. Without that ^Save the World^ appeal, their donations would be half what they are now. They are far more motivated towards alarmism than climatologists.
Crying wolf will only work for but a brief time before it ceases to arouse concern.
Children in the futre just won’t know what wolves sound like 😉
Maybe if the Greens use a cute, huggable crying wolf as their next plushy mascot, kids will take interest.
I’m interested in how people will attempt to re-inject urgency into the issue. You can’t be more alarmist than before. A government employed friend talks about ‘its not catastrophic but adaptations need to be made which the developed countries will struggle with’. That’s hardly going to keep me out of the pub. I almost long for the days when ‘earth will have runaway global warming and we’ll end up like venus’. At least you knew where you stood. It comes down to how much climate change we mind and how much gives us fits of the vapours. I’d be happy with 12C global average rise – the ‘golden age of mammals’ coped with it ok in the Eocene. George Monbiot is quivering with fear over 2C rise. But that’s because he’ll never be able to go ice-skating again.
Thanks goodness for that. Now all we need is an Abbott!
Well, you already have a Bishop
Lol!!
Alas, after the referendum on the 18th poor old Bish may find himself marooned behind the new “Iron Curtain” of independent Scotland.
Meanwhile earlier this week, Ed Davey, the LibDem excuse for UK’s climate change commissar, informs us that all is going well for agreement in NY and the subsequent Paris COP: apparently all the big players are ‘onside’, even those whose leaders are not bothering to attend!
I suspect Davey’s still relying on his advice notes dating from autumn 2009.
Nice one!!!
A Monckton will do…
saying that conservatives are better educated…..I can hear the screaming from here
No, they have different biases.
In the UK, most Conservative MPs are thick. All Labour MPs are thick.
Tim Yeo’s thick , and proud of his record. Not sure it is reasonable to generalise too broadly.
Yeo has been deselected, so will cease to count next year.
Yeo being deselected will raise the average IQ of the MP’s
Not just the UK – worldwide, most of the politicians from the right are daft, all of the ones on the left are. (just my opinion, others mileage may very)
So when are the Tory MPs going to tell their leader to stop going on about something that they don’t believe is true?
Possibly next year. If the Scots vote for Independence later this month, then Labour held Scottish seats will disappeart at the General Election next year. The Tories will then no longer have to Espouse the Lib Dem ‘green’ agenda to maintain the coalition and they can kick the Green energy policy into touch. Not quite that simple, as there are some silly green laws that wil have to be got rid of and we will have a fight with the EU, but bring it on!
Old’un,
If the Scots vote for independence, as it appears they will, it will be pretty much of an unmitigated disaster with a widening cascade of negative impacts around the world.
The thought in the public’s mind around the world will be: ‘Hey! Us, too!’ The Catalons in Spain, French and Dutch speaking Belgians, U.S. states, China’s minorities, etc. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be legitimized. And what of NATO? Hong Kong and Taiwan will be seen very differently.
In addition, this *very* emotional issue ignores the fact that there are about 300 years of debts accruing. The remaining UK will expect to be paid. Will the new Scotland be willing to pony up and pay? If they refuse, then what?
My best wishes for our friends in the UK. You are going to need a lot of luck. I don’t believe in that much luck, myself.
Not sure we are going to vote for “independence” – too close to call for me.
But Wee Eck made me smile last week when he affirmed on the radio that we would not be a “foreign” country to England, just an “independent” one.
I say let them be independent … and independent of the welfare check from London as well!
“Only 51 per cent of MPs agree that it is an established fact that global warming is largely man made, though there are substantial differences between parties.” What global warming?? The fact that there is no warming is exactly why Caroline Lucas jumped up in the house today with here placard saying that her electorate want action on “climate change”. If Co2 is not causing warming then exactly how do we confront climate change presumably we all prepare placards and jump up and down protesting that politicians are not taking their angst seriously enough believing that if you make enough fuss God will listen modify our climate and begin filling in all of the holes we have dug in his planet to get thus far with our civilisation. The maybe someone will ask Alex Salmond First Minister exactly how his green paranoia squares itself with his reliance on oil to fund his proposed annexation of Scotland. He wants to wind turbines to generate green electricity for Scotland whilst selling oil to fund his deficit, makes sense.
He proposing to “annex” Scotland to what? Scotland? What a cynic.
Hi David, perhaps this is a very oportune moment to introduce my new novel to you in the wake of having faced a nightmare windfarm application in one of the most stunning parts of the Scottish Borders. The book is called The Golden Tower and is widely available in the normal places and touches upon the hypocrisy of Oil in this country within this warmhearted and exciting story. It’s a book I would really like to go viral between now and the 18th!
EDWARD HURST
With Scotland a matter of weeks away from independance from the not-so united Kingdom and many in his party wanting to quit Europe, pretty soon it won’t matter what he says.
Perhaps England could apply to be the 51st state of the Union. It has been in reality since the Thatcher years.
Is that why Tony made that bad lie about WMD’s in Iraq? And then got the Basra zone as his primary. From a Country that has a Neverendum on breaking up, maybe it isn’t a bad thing to cut the strings … from a snowed in Canadian. Que sera sera.
I will be amazed if the Scots even get a close result in the referendum. I think the polls are being hyped up to make it look close. In the end I think there will be al least a 10% lead for the No’s.
For me, the interesting stat is the Labor MP figure, which reveals that 27% of those do not endorse the AGW line.
True.
It is easier for a Tory to question the certainty of man’s influence over the climate. They won’t be deselected by their base. They won’t lose their jobs (and pay).
But that 27% of Labour MPs are being rather bold.
Well, 17% of Labour MPs went to Oxbridge. Maybe that has something to do with it. 32% of Conservative MPs went to Oxbridge and 6% to Eton. Either this is a coincidence or actual education does help those who are privileged enough to have it to think for them selves.
It would be interesting how similar study in the USA would turn out. For some reason I doubt it would show a similar trend but I hope I’m wrong.
“A further 18 per cent agree that “man-made climate change is environmentalist propaganda”.”
Something can be propaganda and still be the truth.
Some propaganda is using the truth in imaginative ways.
By ‘imaginative’ I presume you mean ‘misleading’:
information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view
Mislead? Well…. To lead in a direction you desire.
Otherwise, what is the point of propaganda?
Obviously this survey was commissioned by a deeenier group, since they were posing questions that defined what they were actually asking rather than some amorphous, meaningless phrase like “global warming”.
Nice clear, well defined questions for once.
I think the question/statement “it has not yet been conclusively proved that climate change is man made” is ambiguous. What climate change? Defined how? Since when? And what fraction, if any, is man made?
For many polls, the answers really do depend on how the question is phrased.
Still, it may be a sign of progress. Those MPs just need to do something about it now. An anonymous poll costs them little individually, and they could deny it later.
I fear that you are right in your assertion that they will not act on their true views. I have spoken to a number of Conservative MP’s over the years at functions and most have told me privately that they are not convinced that climate change is a problem, but they are afraid to speak out publically for fear of upsetting the green vote.
Its an irony that in those countries that have no democracy such has China its the government that tell the AGW alarmist to get lost , while those that have such has the UK its politicians fear of how the voting public may react to the implementation of the alarmists mad ideas that means they don’t buy into them .
Either way the reality is the mad ideas of the AGW will not come to pass , although some of less mad have already. So we get to do a real life test of if things are really has urgent and has extreme has the alarmist claim they are.
So far so good and much to the disappointment of the AGW faithful and the benefit of the rest of mankind , it seem they are dead wrong.
Consensus doesn’t matter in science, but it matters in politics. The most important “consensus” to date in this Piltdown like saga is the 96-0 consensus the Democratic controlled US Senate delivered on Kyoto.
It would be better if it was 97-0.
But when will they repeal the Climate Change Act 2008?
Let’s see. From a laymen perspective.:
CO2, miniscule gas until gathered up by nature and is completely a natural formation causes nature harm somehow.
Humanity is a part of nature and if the rest of nature can’t keep up, demise. (Not pleasant but true.)
The fix that is currently in place causes more harm than good to nature. (Think bird and bat battering wind turbines and solar fields that incinerate flying birds and such while just going about their way.)
The denial of nature to go about it’s way no matter what we do. (Can we blame all this on atmospheric atomic bomb testing?)
The anti-science theme of the debate is over and the science is settled = Political science. (Politicians) Not going there.
The history books tell us that Greenland was once green before and there are people who are right now, digging through permafrost to get to the encampments of the people that lived there before that didn’t have to dig through permafrost to build their encampments. (WUWT?)
A virtual sea of buffalo was exterminated in N. America and didn’t do anything to temperatures.
There are people that say that civilization is only 6500 years old, (bible people) however, if you look back at the scientific evidence from that time, it was much warmer than today and it was known as a garden of Eden.
From the dawn of civilization, mankind has tried to rule the masses through the fear of some deity creating some sort of revenge on society because of whatever it is their doing. Today, the recycling of CO2.
“Much may be made of a Conservative, if he is caught young.”
If you find a “good” socialist, shoot it before it goes bad.
Some people say that the real effects of CO2 are camouflaged, but I can’t see it.
Does this mean we can expect ‘as went Australia so goes Britain’?
Also, there is a storm brewing in the USA upcoming November elections with Republicans having a respectable chance of taking over control of the Senate. They would have both houses of Congress then.
We might then have a much needed test of power between a Republican dominated congress and the self-styled authoritarian Obama.
John
but why then – as Philip Bratby rightly observers – did they all, bar 4, vote the Climate Change Act ?
They ARE politicians!
Tomorrow a different slant.
They voted 2007. 97% for the legislation.
Most of those who voted still taking the fee.
Andy
September 10, 2014 at 8:14 am
Andy, just to register your 2 cars from new would cost you 8000€ each in france. This cost goes down as the cars age but only to 10yrs old and then if someone buys your car(s) they will have to pay the 8000€ again. The idiot that is our president wonders why our economy is failing and failing fast.
Incidently, for a 2ltr diesel, 42mph car it will cost you 2200€.
The French car charges seem to be very simple to work out.
http://streetwise-france.com/car-tax-france.htm
Of theose who expressed skepticism in this poll, how many voted against the Climate Change Act is 2008?
Only 3 MP’s voted against, plus 2 tellers. Just 5 in total were prepared to put themselves on the line. The rest even decided to increase the target for cutting CO2 emissions from 60% by 2050 to 80% without even considering the cost of doing so.
On a posting about Portugal climate change a note was made.
The people have had enough of dramatized reports predicting an imminent climate apocalypse just around the corner. According to a Eurobarometer poll conducted in July 2013, a mere 4% of the European population now cites the alleged climate catastrophe as their most pressing concern. Moreover, the number is zero percent in seven European countries, including Portugal.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/05/surprising-facts-about-climate-change-in-portugal-why-the-climate-
catastrophe-is-not-happening/
A quick research led to me to comment.
The most optimistic statement made – From the 2011 polling – Half (50%) of all Europeans think that climate change is one of the world’s most serious problems and around one in six Europeans (16%) think it is the single most serious problem.
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/citizens/support/docs/report_2014_en.pdf
Progress is being made. Drop from 16% to 4% in just 2 years.
And from the June 2011 Special report – pg 14- QB3 From the following list, please pick the five main environmental issues that you are Worried about. (ROTATE – MAX. 5 ANSWERS) It is interesting to note the huge decrease of 23 percentage points of climate change since 2007, from 57% to 34%.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/pdf/EB_summary_EB752.pdf
And that’s top 5 worries.
So when the IMF Chief Christine Lagarde say’s “Higher energy prices would prompt people to shift to cleaner fuels or more fuel-efficient vehicles on their own, Lagarde said, adding that they could also
allow governments to lower other taxes on consumption or income to reduce the burden on people, or pay
down more public debt.”
Or they may be prompted to just stop believing.
I’ll know that the Great Delusion is well and truly over when I can once again buy 100W incandescent lamp bulbs in Tescos.
The House of Commons has a very low proportion of MPs with a science background. Add to that the Tories hatred of anything that “interferes with the market” and you have a recipe for the totally unsurprising results of the survey.
Some of the Tory right – and their friends in UKIP are plain ignorant on climate change. Tory MP Peter Lilley said that sea levels were many metres higher than now in the past (true) and so it did not matter if they were again (doh!). I debated with a UKIP candidate earlier this year who stated (seriously) that palm trees were growing on Greenland 2,000 years ago. When challenged as to his source for this gem of information he said “I saw it on TV”.
But both sides can and do play ^my best against your worst^ and look good.
“When challenged as to his source for this gem of information he said “I saw it on TV”.
Another success of the BolshieBC and the like to bumfuzzle public opinion.
If you want to look at a Conservative MP who is in favour of climate change legislation and the renewables industry, checkout the career and the lobbyist consultancy fees of Tim Yeo. He is also at the same time the chairman of the influential and supposedly impartial Commons committee on climate change. A somewhat conflicting position.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187948/Conservative-MP-chairs-climate-committee-earns-140k-green-energy-firms.html
He was though, very thankfully deselected by his South Suffolk constituency party earlier this year. He will not be standing for parliament again.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/10485742/Tim-Yeo-dropped-as-Tory-MP-by-local-party.html
“But by far the biggest problem facing the climate agenda is the global warming ‘pause’. The average global surface temperature has not risen for 17 years, an inconvenient fact that no scientist had predicted.”
Its not just that the :”pause” wasn’t predicted. Its that for 17 years its existence was DENIED. And anyone who suggested there was a pause was labeled “plain ignorant on climate change” (see above) or much worse, ipso facto.
…and these same people, these right wingers, are also mostly creationists like Glenn Beck. Woop-de-doo, they are already converted, now how do skeptics convert the rest? It’s by calling out fraud in loud anger, but the old men of skepticism haven’t got any fight in them, so colleges still get away with teaching thoughtlessness instead of critical thinking. What do they care, these soft minded pacifists, ten years from their death beds? They would rather spend time feeling superior amongst themselves than reach out to youth culture blogs and news sites, where intellectual bubbles thrive but are easily burst, were there more than a mere one or two of us going on over there to fight for reason. With so few of you being actual activists, us loud voices come off as isolated fanatics. Don’t worry, we’ll win, but many of you won’t live to see the very slow victory because you refused to engage the enemy that has declared cultural war on you. You left it to raw data maverick Goddard to call out fraud, and this Holocaust photo CIA conspiracy theorist birther merely alienated college kids instead of inspired them. Instead of actual activism you took the coward’s path of creating 500+ comments a day on Curry’s blog instead of 500 comments a day on blogs and news sites where non-skeptics might actually read them. I’m utterly disgusted by it as most of you should be disgusted with yourselves.
You are probably right, Nik … the trick is getting skeptic comments to stick in those youth culture blogs and news sites long enough to be read given the extreme level of censorship. That is a point that is consistently strongly made in all skeptic blogs.
I am probably somewhat irrational. I have been (snipped) here. My posts to the “cult blogs” never appear. The editors make sure of that.
“Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of Labour MPs agree that man-made global warming…” Yes, we definitely identified the problem correctly. Nothing will change this persuasion’s minds on this attempted world power grab – even freezing to death in the dark. UK Conservatives were drinking the kool aid in all its flavors but pragmatism seems to still be alive and well in this group. One group wants to put an end to elections, the other wants to get re-elected.