Global warming worries 81% of the world

A poll of 19,579 citizens across 19 countries, to measure attitudes to current energy policy, was conducted for the BBC World Service in July.

Fully eight in ten citizens (81%) across the 19 countries are concerned about the impact current energy policy is having on the Earth's environment and climate. Among the more astonishing results, for me, was that Austalia is, of all the nations, the most concerned: "that the way the world produces and uses energy is causing environmental problems including climate change with 94% of us very concerned or concerned". :::[World Public Opinion: Energy_Jul06_quaire.PDF <-- that's a PDF of the full results, the summary is here]

We are also the nation most willing to accept an impost on energy in order to conserve energy with 30% of us strongly favouring this, and 39% of us somewhat favouring this. The survey was conducted when we were feeling the pinch from petrol pricing. What is astonishing is that we are one of the only two countries not to sign up to the Kyoto protocol, and that our government has proactively underminded it, putting it's faith in vapourware as the solution. Yet this clearly hasn't fooled the people, they know it is a lie.

The study received scant media attention in Australia, I just discovered it per chance, so spread the word and give me a link. I am proud that most Aussies see though Howard's bullshit to the reality - even more acutely than the rest of the world. Perhaps we feel the impacts more; our land a little more sensitive to climate variation and drought prone at the best of times, we have reef to bleach and this hurts tourism. Hot summers days hit mid 40's in celsius and that is enough to sear the crux of the problem right into the brain. :::[Life in a greenhouse is boring: witness] Big bushfires are more common as Ash Wednesday comes along every few years now. Perhaps we are more aware that the coal we export - our biggest earner - is making this climate change problem worse. Perhaps us not joining Kyoto fueled a more widespread national debate on the subject than I realised. To me the 'debate' sounded more like Howard and his cronies telling us our economy was stuffed if business as usual did not continue, and dismissing any other suggestion. I know this intransigence inspired me to find out more for myself - perhaps it also did for a fair few others.

Whatever the reason, or combinations of reasons, I want to know more.

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