Australian and British attitudes to climate change: latest 2011 report

It would appear that more Australians accept the science behind climate change predictions than believe contrarians, denialists, propagandists and prevaricators like Tony Abbott, Nick Minchin, Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones and The Australian campaign against science.

Public Risk Perceptions, Understandings, and Responses to Climate Change in Australia and Great Britain: Interim Report
[Joseph P. Reser, Nick Pidgeon, Alexa Spence, Graham Bradley, A. Ian Glendon & Michelle Ellul, Griffith University Climate Change Response Program and Understanding Risk Centre, Cardiff University, 2011]

Australia-specific research findings1
71% of Australian respondents reported that their level of concern about climate change had increased over the past two years.
78% of Australian respondents agreed that, “If nothing is done to reduce climate change in the future, it will be a „very serious‟ or „somewhat serious‟ problem for
Australia”.
When asked, “How serious a problem do you think climate change is right now”, 45% of Australian respondents reported that it was a serious problem.
Respondent objective knowledge levels about matters relating to the underlying science of climate change and projected impacts were modest, with respondents
getting, on average, four to five out of 10 true/false statements correct. These findings are interesting when compared with respondent self-reported knowledge level, with close to 75% of respondents feeling that they knew a reasonable amount about climate change, suggesting that many respondents either overestimated or underestimated their own knowledge levels in the area of climate change.
The Australian survey findings with respect to perceived interrelationships between climate change and natural disasters are of particular interest. It is clear that the evidence and projected consequences which respondents refer to in the context of their belief and concern about climate change are often related to extreme weather events and natural disasters.
37% of Australian respondents reported having had direct personal experience with differing natural disaster events. Overall, public risk perceptions and understandings of the threat of climate change in Australia appear to be strongly influenced and informed by knowledge of direct or indirect experience with both acute and chronic natural disasters in the Australian environment.
59% of Australian respondents thought that the region where they lived was vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with two thirds of these respondents indicating that their location was „very‟ or „reasonably‟ vulnerable.
An important and neglected domain in climate change surveys relates to the possible psychological impacts of the threat and perceived environmental consequences of
climate change. Australian survey respondents completed a seven-item measure of experienced psychological distress with respect to the threat of climate change. 20%
of respondents reported feeling, at times, appreciable distress at the prospect and implications of climate change and its consequences.
1 A number of these specific findings are not reported or discussed in detail in the interim report, but will befully addressed in the subsequent final report which will be completed and available in July 2011.

More specific joint findings include the following:
74% of Australian respondents and 78% of British respondents believed "that the world's climate is changing", with 8% reporting "not knowing" in both countries.
71% of Australian respondents either "strongly agreed" or "tended to agree" with the statement, “I am certain that climate change is really happening”.
90% of Australian respondents and 89% of British respondents believed that human activities were playing a causal role in climate change.
54% of Australian respondents and 41% of British respondents believed that they were already experiencing the effects of climate change. Australian respondents provided many examples of direct encounters with what they viewed as evidence of climate change in open-ended survey items.
66% of Australian respondents and 71% of British respondents reported that they were "very concerned" or "fairly concerned" about climate change, with an additional 22% and 19% respectively, indicating some level of concern.
Australian and British respondents were only slightly less concerned with respect to the personal impacts of climate change, with 62% of Australian and 60% of British respondents reporting that they were "very concerned" or "fairly concerned".
A psychological variable of demonstrated importance in the context of climate change is perceived self efficacy, i.e., the extent to which people feel they can engage in actions that could make a difference either in their local or global environment.
The survey findings suggest that the majority of both Australian and British respondents feel that despite clear difficulties and challenges, their actions can make a difference, and that the issue of climate change is serious, urgent, and personally relevant.
Taken as a whole, these Australia/Great Britain comparison findings indicate striking similarities, high levels of climate change concern, and strong belief on the part of over 70% of respondents in both countries that human activities are in part responsible for current global climate change.
These findings also suggest that media coverage of public perceptions of and responses to the threat of climate change is often very wide of the mark, and that reported declines over the past several years in public concern about climate change and its relative importance as an environmental issue and threat have been overstated.

Download full report here.