Australian Views on Climate Change Shifting

Australia perceptions climate change changing

With a national election under a fortnight away the attitude Australian’s have to climate change continues to shift.

With Australian’s going to the polls on the 21st of August a new poll by Gallup shows that the countries attitudes towards global warming could be a factor in an election which follows many others with global warming playing a key factor.

Those who believe that climate change is a result of human activities has dropped from 52% in 2008 to 44% in 2010 while those who believe the reverse, that it is a result of natural causes, has leapt 10 points from 2008 to 31%.

In a country where 97% of respondents to the Gallup survey said that they know “a great deal” (24%) or “something” (73%) about climate change, the drop suggests a great impact as a result of the “climategate” controversy that saw emails published from the University of Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU) call their research into question.

Sadly, Australian’s are now less likely to believe that global warming is a direct threat. 22% of respondents said that the threat that global warming presents to them and their family is “very serious,” down from 31% in 2008, although 47%, up from 44%, believe it is “somewhat serious.”

Source: Gallup

Photo Credit: paul (dex) via flickr

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