Public Support For Tackling Climate Change Declines Dramatically

There has been dramatic decline over the past decade in the public's support for tackling climate change in Britain. Backing for higher green taxes and charges has waned and scepticism about the seriousness of the threat to the environment has increased. Over the same period the public has become much more sceptical about the science behind climate change. In 2010 37% said many claims about environmental threats were "exaggerated", up from 24% in 2000. -- Randeep Ramesh, The Guardian, 7 December 2011

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UK consumers are reacting to the financial crisis and a wave of “climategate” email scandals by keeping their wallets in their pockets when given the choice of going green. --Click Green, 7 December 2011 The main findings from the study of ten UK national newspapers can be summarised thus: [...] The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has been particularly successful in getting its views reported across most of the 10 UK newspapers. The two most quoted sceptics by far in the second period were Lord Lawson and Benny Peiser (more than 80 times between them) both from the GWPF. --James Painter, Poles Apart: the International Reporting of Climate Scepticism, University of Oxford, November 2011 Among other things, the study shows the success that the the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has had in inserting itself into national discourse since its establishment in 2009 - a success noted this week by the conservativehome blog, which describes it as "one of the most important think-tanks in Britain today". --Richard Black, BBC News, 10 November 2011

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Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman appeared to take a notably more skeptical view towards current climate change science Tuesday, saying that the "scientific community owes us more" on the issue and that not enough solid research exists to "formulate policies" based on global warming. “there's not enough information right now to be able to formulate policies in terms of addressing it overall, primarily because it's a global issue," he went on. "We can enact policies here. But I wouldn't want to unilaterally disarm as a country, I wouldn't want to hinder job creators during a time when our economy is flat." --Carrie Dann, NBC News, NBC News, 6 December 2011 Rumors are circulating in Durban that the UK prime minister's policy guru Steve Hilton has jettisoned his sandals and is boasting of his new-found climate skepticism, while George Osborne this week articulated an analysis of the value of nature that wouldn't have been amiss coming from the mouth of Dick Cheney. All this leaves Chris Huhne looking like an increasingly isolated figure at home, but in Cancun he played a central role in keeping the Kyoto Protocol alive and in South Africa he will carry the hopes of people who still expect Britain to play a constructive role at these talks. But whatever the state of the shifting sands of Britain's political culture, the big question in Durban is whether an extraordinarily obstructive Obama administration is days away from killing this process and burying its corpse next to the Doha round of trade talks. --Joss Garman, Huffington Post, 4 December 2011 The foundering this week of not one but two experiments in megalomanic government pretension — the Kyoto Protocol and the European superstate — should provide cause for reflection about the limits of government. Instead, what we are seeing is desperate attempts to paper over the yawning policy cracks. --Peter Foster, Financial Post, 7 December 2011

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