Pandemic not distracting people’s attention from climate change fears
Lockdowns and lifestyle disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic have not made people less concerned about climate change and the need for drastic action to save the planet, new Scottish research has found.
The study, by academics at the University of Edinburgh, assesses how attitudes towards the environmental crisis may have changed between April 2019 and June 2020.
Results show neither fears about global warming nor belief in the severity of the problem have declined in the UK, despite the massive impact Covid-19 has been having on daily life.
The findings come in contrast to responses to the financial crash of 2008, which pushed environmental issues down people’s list of priorities.
The study sheds light on how the “finite pool of worry” theory – which proposes that there are only so many things a person can care about and so some concerns are pushed out by others during emergencies – relates to climate change.
Researchers have concluded that climate change may have become a permanent part of people’s concerns.
Dr Darrick Evensen, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, said: “Following the financial crisis, it seemed that climate change was one thing that gave, and most people saw it as less of a problem.
“We are not seeing that same crowding out of climate change as an issue of concern now.
“This means heightened societal attention to climate change is here to stay.”
The study, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
The research will be welcomed ahead of the gathering of world leaders in Glasgow later this year for the successor to the landmark Paris meeting of 2015. Under the terms of the Paris deal, countries promised to come back every five years.
That was due to happen in Glasgow in November 2020, but had to be pushed back due to the pandemic.
In the interim, at the UN General Assembly in September, Chinese President Xi Jinping stunned observers when he announced that China aimed to go carbon neutral by 2060.