8/20/2019 Are Public Attitudes to Climate Change as Fickle as the Weather

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Are public attitudes to climate change as fckle as the weather?

Much o the debate on long-term climate change can be obscured by notions drawnrom short-term weatherPublic attitudes in the developed world to the reality and the causes o climatechange have tended to ebb and ow over the past ew years.

A survey carried out or the Pew esearch !entre in the "# in $%&$ concluded thatthe belie that the 'arth(s temperature is rising was down &%) rom $%%* at *+) oresponders.Pew ound ,$) agreed with the statement that climate change is mostly caused byhuman activity down fve points in the last si years.

 /ou regularly see even the best science communicators tie themselves up in knotsabout the relationship between weather and climate because it is 0ust reallysubtle1r Adam !orner !ardi2 "niversity3n the "4 public opinion has uctuated as well. A /ou5ov survey rom last summerindicated that ,6) believed that the world is becoming warmer as a result ohuman activity. 7hat(s down rom previous surveys. 7he percentage o those who

said they were not sure about the answer increased to one in fve respondents.esearchers have tried to work out what(s been a2ecting the fgures - they lookedat events such as the so-called !limate5ate a2air in $%%8 and ound that it had asignifcant impact on public aith - a 99! poll in $%&% showed that scepticism wason the rise as a result.9ut apart rom this anomaly pollsters have struggled to eplain the variation in thefgures.4nee-0erk reaction:ow a new piece o research on opinion in the "# published in the 0ournal !limatic!hangesuggests that the public(s response to the great scientifc issue o the day isoten determined by the state o the weather. 7he study carried out by the"niversity o 9ritish !olumbia looked at public and media attitudes to climatescience over the past $% years.

 7hey ound that scepticism rose during cold snaps but belie in global warmingincreased during hot spells.Pro #imon 1onner who carried out the analysis told me that it wasn(t ;uite assimple as that.e argues that in the "# climate issues have become highly politicised and it ishard to separate these political leanings rom people(s views on the science oclimate.#cientists in the feld have also made matters worse according to Pro 1onner.

8/20/2019 Are Public Attitudes to Climate Change as Fickle as the Weather

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3n the "4 a /ou5ov poll in @anuary suggests that people here are almost evenly spliton the link between weather events and climate change.1r Adam !orner rom !ardi2 "niversity who is also a consultant with the !limate=utreach and 3normation :etwork says that scientists taking about individualmeteorological events is dangerous.