Public concern about Climate Change drops 14-points since last year. Why? – Abacus Data
Public concern about Climate Change drops 14-points since last year. Why?
Public concern about Climate Change drops 14-points since last year. Why? – Abacus Data
Public concern about Climate Change drops 14-points since last year. Why?
20 Comments
Material conditions
When people no longer feel secure in being able to afford the basics, all other concerns fall to the wayside
Two reasons.
One, we are living week to week month to month paycheck to paycheck. With so much to occupy it is difficult to think that far ahead especially at this time when every resource is increasingly more valuable
Two, we aren’t the ones who destroyed the climate. For decades and centuries the mega rich have grown fat while they cleave the earth barren. Let them save the earth with their mountains of gold or perish along with it.
Depends on who they are asking and when they are asking them. Last year we had huge wildfires in places where you rarely have them. Smoke was covering areas in Ottawa for instance. This year we definitely had some big ones (Jasper obviously) but they were more localized. The sad fact is the majority of people aren’t going to worry about the climate and such till the effects are right there in their face daily and then it is too late anyway. Also the dominant media forces definitely aren’t pushing climate topics to the front. It is almost all “housing”, “inflation”, “immigrants”. Most people will care about what they are told to care about or it definitely will be whatever is in the forefront of their mind when they answer these questions.
Also the poll people always say “the sample is representative” but there are always going to be factors that can influence your sample. You get enough people who never really cared about climate in there and it is going to swing that way. If your sample is weighted the other way it swings that way. Random sampling is supposed to push it to the centre but its never truly random.
When people can’t afford to live, the scope of their concerns shrinks to what they need to survive. Climate change is a problem, but it’s a *distant* problem compared to *how the shih tzu am I going to afford my rent?*
Because we are at the point where if you believe it is an issue you can do something through lifestyle changes. In the past it was always someone else is the problem, not me.
People really really hate lifestyle changes. Cognitive dissonance kicks in and now people think it isn’t a problem.
Worth noting we’re still taking about a *vast* majority of Canadians being concerned about climate change, here, so the narrative of “Canadians aren’t concerned about climate change anymore!” isn’t really true – according to this, *86%* are still concerned to some degree.
People who are getting poorer are going to shift priorities. Somewhat inevitable, most elections ultimately swing on such pocketbook issues, right or wrong.
[When basic needs are not met, existentialism takes a back seat. ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs)
I’m less concerned because climate change is completely unstoppable and irreversible. The damage is done and will continue until large swaths of the earth are uninhabitable. The climate wars will begin and civilization as we know it will end. The human population will eventually rebalance with nature and life will go on in some way.
I think the cost of living crisis is going to take precedence for voters over the climate crisis until living costs start to go down again. The CPC basically has this window to blame the carbon tax for contributing to those issues as a justification to get rid of it, but I think if Poilievre is in office around 2029-2030, the CPC is going to be under fire again for its climate & social policies and will be far less electorally secure.
Is it possibly the lack of wildfires impacting major metropolitan areas this year? The sky was orange for a big part of last summer
Many people won’t like it . Climate action only matters to people if people have money and economy is good. When people struggle with daily stuff like grocery no one will take care about environment.
I’m _less concerned_ than I used to be _because I’ve accepted the inevitability of oncoming hard times_.
It’s a bit like knowing you have an incurable terminal disease and coming to terms with it.
There’s a slow realization we can do our part but if the world (rea: China , India and other emerging economies) doesn’t reign in their growth to lower emissions, we’re just self harming. Expect to see this rhetoric come to the fore. It’s no longer enough to guilt people about climate change
When the economy is bad, use of carbon automatically drops. So the LPC is already helping to reduce climate change.
Canadians should pet ourselves in the back for such an advance.
My guess is this is intentional interference working as intended.
Start attacking peoples’ human rights (denying healthcare to trans people, threatening women and girls with forced birth, infringing on right to be free from religion), spread conspiracy theories, destroy (general) healthcare and education, and harm our political discourse with lies and obnoxious rhetoric, and suddenly patriotic Canadians will refocus away from things like climate change and reducing wealth extraction, and focus on the more immediate threats to life and dignity.
Destroying NATO is Russia’s goal, but one of Russia’s allies – the fossil fuel industry – benefits from the distractions they create. Of course they’re going to amplify them.
I think the only people who really care about climate change at a personal level are elder millennials who had it hammered into them. The rest of us understand it’s a macro issue that’s abstract and not worth changing our individual behaviours for.
Right – as someone says – as material concerns and needs become harder to acquire, individuals respond with increased stress or perception of stress which has an impact on how we process information.
The above with corporate and foreign distortion of information are most probable reasons.
I’m confused how Green Party voters are less concerned about climate change than LPC or NDP voters. Obviously, there’s more to environmentalism than reducing emissions but this is still pretty surprising
One big thing that changed my thinking is seeing the Biden administration do nothing about enacting a carbon tax after three and a half years in office.
There was hope a decade ago that an international consensus on action would emerge, but at some point that seems to have evaporated. I don’t see how we can continue pursuing the current carbon tax policy in Canada without seeing any movement on similar policies with our largest trading partner.