Climate Change Concerns, Economic Hardship Don't Mix, Study Says

By: Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Published: 03/15/2012 03:39 PM EDT on LiveScience

In recent years, people seem to care less and less about climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions, with surveys showing declines among those who see it as a real problem and worry about the effects.

A recent analysis of public opinion data in the United States and Europe offers an explanation: tough economic times associated with the Great Recession.

Using survey data going back to the late 1990s, researchers looked at other alternative explanations — media coverage that includes skeptical views on climate change and short-term fluctuations in weather — could not fully explain the dramatic decline since 2008, when the recession began, according to two researchers.  

About two decades of Gallup survey data show a strong correlation between unemployment rates and the perception that the media "exaggerate the seriousness of global warming," they found. Even in Europe, where concern and acceptance of climate change science is higher than in the United States, concern declined after the recession hit, according to them.

This environment versus prosperity paradigm isn't new.

"The pattern is consistent with more than 40 years of public opinion about environmental policy," write Lyle Scruggs and Salil Benegal of the University of Connecticut in an article published online recently in the journal Global Environmental Change.

People believe addressing climate change will stifle economic growth, and when faced with tough economic times, people want growth. They respond to the conflicting needs by shifting their beliefs about climate change, according to Scruggs and Benegal.

"Given what we know about recent and historic patterns, it seems probable that climate change opinion will rebound as the economy, and more specifically the job situation, improves," they write. "Both would obviously improve more quickly if planetary stewardship can become a catalyst for economic recovery and transformation, and not instinctively seen as a barrier to that goal."

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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Comments

[Publicola]

11:12 AM on 03/24/2012

Conservative Climate Scientist Dr. Barry Bickmore:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve recently been involved with other scientists and scholars in Utah trying to stop the spread of outright lies, half-truths, abuses of data, and distortions about climate change.  Much of this disinformation is coming from (or through) some Republican members of the Utah Legislature...

I'm a Republican myself, and it galls me that my own party has locally fallen for a bunch of conspiracy theories and scientifically incompetent trash. In my opinion, something has to be done to save the party from disaster in the long run...

Democracy depends on accurate information being readily available to the public, and I see people who propagate such disinformation campaigns as enemies of Democracy.

http://bbickmore.wordpress.com/about-this-blog/

[eaarth2]

08:49 AM on 03/24/2012

climate scientists do not overly rely on computer models- they rely now on paleo climate records almost exclusively

http://limitlesslife.wordpress.com/2011/12/24/2-degrees-temp-rise-will-cause-25m-sea-level-rise/

[eaarth2]

08:34 AM on 03/24/2012

Either you start posting my excellent replies or I Leave Huff Post-

[Bryan Boru]

07:07 AM on 03/24/2012

..."A recent analysis of public opinion data in the United States and Europe offers an explanation: tough economic times associated with the Great Recession."...

I've got a better recent analysis - counter arguments to the hysterical nonsense are having an effect. Liberal ideas no longer enjoy a monopolistic advantage - the days of a liberal media hegemony are OVER! The tree ring data and the doctored data is pathetic. The satellite data is coming in, and that will be trustworthy, but it hasn't been sufficiently gathered yet.

[eaarth2]

08:52 AM on 03/24/2012

you sound like a fascist- which is what most republicans are these days- as well as many libertarians.

[Publicola]

11:19 AM on 03/24/2012

Um..

The satellite temperature data - which goes back more than three decades - is in strong agreement with the surface temperature data.

Hope this helps.

[eaarth2]

04:59 AM on 03/23/2012

Economic concerns hit home. Paying the rent or mortgage, putting food on the table, paying bills will easily trump environmentalism. In the past the environment could be ignored somewhat till the economy recovered. Today the environment is being compromised mightily by climate change. The effects of C02 being above '350ppm' since the late 1980s is beginning to effect us in many ways- the warming still in the pipeline do to the 'inertia' in the climate system is very troubling- and will be seen in more 'difficult' and extreme weather in years to come.

C02 now at 394ppm (the highest in over 3 million years) and perhaps 15 million years is rising rapidly, in spite of a slow economy. We will not see this level of C02 for 20 years. If we do nothing the effects of this level will be brutal- by the early 2030s the actual amount will measure near the major catastrophic tipping point of 450ppm. If we continue to ignore the issue of climate change (an option we no longer have) the economic ramifications will become nearly unbearable in years to come. And the problems we have today will seem like child's play.

[Bryan Boru]

07:09 AM on 03/24/2012

Really? I have my doubts.

[eaarth2]

07:34 AM on 03/24/2012

you have doubts- but the science is very concise and exact- the paleo climate records do not lie- and within them shows very chilling details. you have NO data or information to back up your doubts....

[This American]

11:03 PM on 03/22/2012

They also ebb when there are 15 years of no warming despite continued increases in atmospheric CO2. Hansen =Maddoff =chicken little

[Publicola]

07:31 PM on 03/20/2012

National Academy of Sciences (2010):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is a strong, credible body of evidence, based on multiple lines of research, documenting that climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities. While much remains to be learned, the core phenomenon, scientific questions, and hypotheses have been examined thoroughly and have stood firm in the face of serious scientific debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations...

Some scientific conclusions or theories have been so thoroughly examined and tested, and supported by so many independent observations and results, that their likelihood of subsequently being found to be wrong is vanishingly small. Such conclusions and theories are then regarded as settled facts. This is the case for the conclusions that the Earth system is warming and that much of this warming is very likely due to human activities.

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12782 

[Bryan Boru]

07:13 AM on 03/24/2012

You know, Einstein let his theories be debated for decades, and willingly. And you know why? Because DEBATE and SKEPTICISM and TESTING are essential to actual science, the non-IPCC kind.

[chrisd3]

08:18 AM on 03/24/2012

Similarly, AGW was debated by skeptical scientists for decades.

And, just like Einstein's ideas, it was eventually accepted as correct.

Excellent example.

[Publicola]

08:49 AM on 03/24/2012

You know, AGW theory has been debated for decades too - the Theory of AGW is in fact older than Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

The scientific debate as to whether AGW theory should like Relativity theory be regarded as the established theory ended many years ago. The political right-driven science-denier "debate" against AGW today -- as was a political right-driven science-denier "debate" against Relativity many decades ago (that still continues today in muted form*) -- is a politcally-driven charade, not a real scientific debate.

---------------------
"This world is a strange madhouse. Currently, every coachman and every waiter is debating whether relativity theory is correct. Belief in this matter depends on political party affiliation."

-- Albert Einstein, 1920, in reference to then-pervasive science denial on the political right against Relativity

 “If I were wrong, one would have been enough."

-- Albert Einstein, in response to a Relativity-denier petition titled "One Hundred Authors Against Einstein

* "The theory of relativity... is heavily promoted by liberals who like its encouragement of relativism and its tendency to mislead people in how they view the world. Here is a list of 39 counterexamples: any one of them shows that the theory is incorrect."

http://conservapedia.com/Counterexamples_to_Relativity

[maxwells]

01:13 PM on 03/20/2012

The first two tinyurls that leesburg-larry cites below actually link to

Climate4you.com, which IS NOT a LEGITIMATE NOAA site.

It's manned by Ole Humlum, a Norwegian with no ties to NOAA.at all.

leesburg-larry's 3rd link does go to a real NOAA site, except that there's no graph there, only some instructions on how to generate one.

Apparently, leesburg-larry seems to think that some readers will be stupid enough to assume that his two graphs were generated by implementing the instructions in the third link.

They weren't.
How do we know?

Courtesy of DocSkull, here's the real NOAA specific humidity graph from the real NOAA site:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/bams-state-of-the-climate/2009-time-series/humidity

Unlike Leesburg's phony graphs, the real NOAA specific humidity graph trends upward.

As a favor to other casual readers, if you find leesburg-larry's attempted fraud appalling, you can tell him so.

It's a small sample of how leesburg-larry and others here operate.

[WonderingNThinking]

05:12 AM on 03/20/2012

I suppose people don't see the connection between environmental improvements and cost savings or the work/jobs some improvements take to do.

[ffx theforce]

11:36 PM on 03/19/2012

"...In recent years, people seem to care less and less about climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions...."

Well sure, it is now well proven that CO2 is a meaningless gas that does nothing to impact climate.

But then, that is not what you gub'mint folks want folks to believe now is it. Since you'all need to continue bleating about CO2 and how it'll kill us all if we don't allow you to tax the living daylights out of it.

Sorry, the scientific proof is in. Co2 is harmless. Time to figure out another way to STEAL money from honest hardworking taxpayers.

[LastAngryWoman]

07:08 AM on 03/20/2012

Michelle, is that you?

[pernthursday]

02:43 PM on 03/20/2012

The big solution being a global tax should have eliminated any confusion amongst the educated population, but I guess its hard to give up your bit when you wander around for so many years spouting nonsense. F&F

[lbsaltzman]

06:32 PM on 03/19/2012

What a tragedy that the denialist lies have convinced people that dealing with global warming is to expensive when that is exactly backwards. Not dealing with global warming is what we can't afford.

[ubrew12]

08:17 PM on 03/19/2012

Over 80% of economists agree with you:
http://resources.ofdan.ca/docs/EconomistsandClimateChange.pdf
"Not dealing with global warming is what we can't afford"
The cost of global warming remediation comes to 75 cents per person per week. What does this buy? Other than cleaner air, cleaner water, lower emphysema deaths, probably lower cancer deaths, less mercury in our seafood, less methane in our drinking water, fewer Appalachian mountains with their tops blown off, less sucking up to countries like Iran and Venezuela, less worrying about a fossil resource that is running out, less skinning of Alberta, and less British Petroleum dumping GOD KNOWS WHAT into our Gulf of Mexico... it turns out that this minor investment will pay BACK $1.50 per person per week in lower food and energy costs. Yup: forgetting all the other benefits I mentioned, AGW remediation turns out to be an INVESTMENT that will return 100% OVER its initial cost, just in lower food and energy costs.
http://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-limits-economy.htm

Can we all understand, now, why this isn't your fathers GOP? Astoundingly penny-wise and pound-foolish, this CAN'T be the party that built the interstate system, or in whose name 'Hoover Dam' was built (you know, the dam that built Las Vegas). Penny-wise, Pound-foolish, describes the entire Republican Party today, and its a shame.

[lbsaltzman]

08:20 PM on 03/19/2012

Well put!

[citizenlegisators]

01:51 PM on 03/19/2012

when you have Climategate, Solyndra, bright star, Keystone, and the Volt debacles,
CAP and Tax,
when Gas is at $5.00 when it could be at $2.00 if not for the Enviro actions over the last 10 years , ya gotta know people aren't buying the Globalphobia Warmmongering any more

[lbsaltzman]

06:30 PM on 03/19/2012

None of that changes the fact that climate change is becoming an unmitigated disaster. Out of context quotes, the isolated failure of a company does not change anything.

[Dallas Dunlap]

08:12 AM on 03/20/2012

citizenlegislators - Gasoline isn't going to be $2.00 for more than a few months at a time from here on out. If you want lower fuel costs, you're backing the wrong horse by sticking with oil. The only way gasoline prices will come down in the long run will be if there are competing fuels. And the whole point of climate denialism is to prevent the develoment of any competition for fossil fuels.

[Jt John]

01:24 PM on 03/19/2012

There is some funky weather going on here, in the Bay Area. Last week was full of rain, every single day. And just yesterday, there were massive gusts and winds. Either climate change is increasing, or its HAARP.

[lbsaltzman]

06:31 PM on 03/19/2012

Actually denying global warming science is really making things up.

[Jt John]

06:36 PM on 03/19/2012

Where did you get your education, if any? Many things are affecting our weather, not just CO2.

[grappler1987]

12:47 PM on 03/19/2012

Cheap energy with carbon dioxide utilization is the key to a better economy while reducing emissions (IMO).

Here is a cool idea ... one of many:
http://energy.gov/articles/innovative-geothermal-startup-will-put-carbon-dioxide-good-use

Here are six other ideas. Converting CO2 into plastic and building material seem cool
http://energy.gov/articles/secretary-chu-announces-six-projects-convert-captured-co2-emissions-industrial-sources

[ARNOST]

08:56 AM on 03/19/2012

Keep talking on the negitive and you will get negitive . Talk about Positive and Hope and things change for the better . Doesnt the media have something better to do with there time than talk about doom and gloom . People are getting feed up with this Garbage

[Robert Lee Harrington]

01:16 PM on 03/19/2012

negative

Doesn't

their

[Robert Lee Harrington]

01:17 PM on 03/19/2012

Use the time to take English 101 at your local community college.

"I mind is a terrible thing to waste."

[Lisa29]

02:48 PM on 03/19/2012

Didn't you mean "A" as in "A mind is a terrible thing to waste"? Maybe you shouldn't judge anyone else for their english. ....LOL

[ARNOST]

09:06 PM on 03/19/2012

I had a infection in my Brain and im still healing already been to College . My spelling might be off right now but soon it will not be . Yahshua is healing me Fast . Glory be to God