UK launches ad to raise waning climate change support

The UK government has launched a climate change-related ad after surveys revealed that most of the public are no longer concerned with global warming despite years of political campaign and millions of pounds spent on information dissemination.

Recent opinion polls in the UK show that 52 per cent of the respondents are not worried about climate change, while 18 per cent do not believe it will affect their children. Current carbon emission data suggests that some 40 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from personal transport and housing.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), which organized the £5.75 million ad, said that many Brits see the topic as far off. Aimed at raising the waning public support for climate change, the government’s ad campaign will run until the middle of November.

The Obama administration in the US also faces the same problem. With the country is expected to lead the upcoming international climate conference in Copenhagen, a newly released report by the Pew Research Centre reveals that only 35 per cent of the American respondents see global warming as a grave threat, a drop of nine per cent from the previous year. Most respondents also rank the economy, education and national security as top priorities, with the global warming issue at the bottom of the survey list.

It is not only in the UK and the US that the climate change topic has been pinned down. Despite a decade-long drought and numerous bush fires in Australia, a recent nationwide poll shows that the issue had dropped to seventh on the list of foreign policy priorities.