A series of polls were done worldwide on the concerns on environmental questions. Among the countries asked were the United States and Australia. Here are the main findings.
For the poll in the United States. 1,002 people were polled. To the question ” How concerned are you about climate change? “, 34% answered Very concerned and 40% Fairly concerned. This means that nearly three US people out of four are somehow concerned by global warming.
Here are some other findings of interest :
To the question “Do you think the U.S. Government should make it easier for you to buy the following items?” 72% of people answered electric/hybrid cars and 59% solar panels.
To the question “The USA is too dependant on non-renewable fossil fuels.” 51% strongly agreed and 33% agreed.
To the question “The U.S. Government should do more to tackle global warming and climate change.” 46% Strongly agreed 34% Agreed.
This means that in the United States four people out of five think their Government should do more to fight climate change. This is indeed good news.
To the question “When it comes to fighting climate change, which of the following actions have you undertaken?” 64% of people installed some energy-saving light bulbs, 84% switch off lights when leaving the room and only 16% answered they took public transportation in the last two weeks.
To the people polled, The U.S. Government should invest more money in public transportation by 73 percent ( 35% strongly agreed and 38% agreed )
Now let us have a look at Australian people and what they think on global warming, water scarcity and similar topics. As I recently wrote, this country is facing a very important drought and has to cope with this phenomenon which has repercussions on their daily lives.
1,007 Australians were polled.
86.4% of Australians polled are concerned about climate change. (40.12% very concerned and 46.28% fairly concerned.) when 91.7% of Australians polled are concerned about the future of the environment. (47.57% very concerned and 44.09% fairly concerned.)
65.9% think that climate change has changed their local weather.
82.8% think that the Australian Government should make it easier for people to buy solar panels and 80.6% think that the Australian Government should make it easier for people to buy energy-efficient products, such as energy-saving light globes, water-saving showerheads and insulation etc.
88.5% think the Australian Government should do more to tackle global warming and climate change and 79.9% think that Australia is too dependent on non-renewable fossil fuels.
85.5% of Australians think that the Government should raise national fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks.
I take the opportunity here with these polls to get back on building nuclear plants on the Australian soil. As you will see this energy source is not really popular there.
“ 88.8% of Australians think that the Government should do more to increase the use of solar power. 78.9% say the government should do more to boost wind power, 58.4% hydro power, 50.7% tidal power, and 38.2% geothermal power.
Despite the push from the Federal Government on the nuclear power issue, nuclear power is the least popular alternative. Only 25.3% think that the Government should do more to increase its use.”
To sum up, here is a table with the main findings :
As one can easily see, Australian people are more concerned by climate change and the environment than American people. To me this due at least for some part to the drought this part of the world is facing.
Next week I will tackle the United Kingdom and France where a similar poll was conducted.
Poll analysis conducted by Jon Dee (jondee@jondee.com).
Data collection software and global consumer panels provided by
GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc., www.gmi-mr.com).