A new poll of the British public has found that one in three citizens sees the climate and environmental crises as a big issue for the country.
A monthly survey conducted in August showed that concern is at its highest level since 1989, when a summer heatwave and concern about greenhouse gases destroying the ozone layer heightened public worries.
Concerns rose by 16 percentage points from July according to the Ipsos Mori poll, coinciding with the publication of the UN’s damning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. That report featured as the main news item on many news channels and grabbed front page headlines in almost every national newspaper. The IPCC report provided ‘unequivocal’ evidence that man made factors were driving up global temperatures.
In publishing the report, Mike Clemence, researcher at Ipsos Mori said: “Public concern about the environment has reached a historically high level this month, with publication of the new IPCC report and reports of fires and flooding around the world.
“But this jump in concern is built on a steady rise in the level of worry on this topic which has been building since around 2015.”
The poll found that the environment was still playing second fiddle to Covid-19 in the conscience of the nation, however it also revealed that the older generation were more worried, which perhaps contradicts theories that only the Greta Thunberg’s of the world are worried about the climate crisis affecting future generations.
“This is just one poll but it is a remarkable finding,” Prof Stephen Fisher, an expert in public opinion from the University of Oxford, told The Independent.
“The 32 per cent who mentioned the environment, climate change or pollution as a major issue for Britain this month is up from 21 per cent in June and 16 per cent in July.”
“That [1989] survey happened shortly after the Greens won 15 per cent in the European Parliament elections in June 1989 – their best ever result in a UK wide election, and better than any regional or national elections for the party.”
