Public unclear on low carbon future: study
DESPITE believing in climate change, many people do not have a clear picture of what a low carbon future looks like, a University of Otago study has found.
Understanding how people thought about climate change could overcome the problem of people seeing climate change as too far away to worry about, too difficult to fix, or as someone else’s responsibility, study supervisor Nancy Longnecker said.
Prof Longnecker said the results of the study suggested people were hoping for technological fixes rather than having to change their lifestyles.
Individual action, collective action and policy were all necessary components in a global response to climate change, she said.
The study, produced by Otago’s Centre for Science Communication, examined how the abstract nature of ‘‘the future’’ could lead to procrastination as people waited for more information before making a change.
Adopting low carbon practices could be more widely accepted and happen sooner if picturing a low carbon future was more common, study lead author Jean Fletcher said.
For example, if people expected vehicles would, rather than might, switch from petrol to electric, the uptake of electric cars could increase sooner, she said.
The study, which focuses on the beliefs of Americans, showed while 74% of survey respondents were concerned about climate change, only 29% discussed lower carbon options when asked to describe travel in the year 2050.