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Recent years have seen a surge in the awareness of environmental issues and climate change. This has been largely due to the huge advances in research that have occurred, and in the ability of scientists to convey this research to the general public. Despite this, there remains a small, yet significant, portion of the population that remains unaware or misinformed about the issues around global warming. This group is not unique - they simply epitomize the disconnect that exists between two distinct lines of thought: scientific and general...

The second part of the CLAMER synthesis is comprised of a poll conducted this past January, led by a part of Taylor Nelson Sofres PLC, the world's largest custom market research company. This is the first poll of its kind to focus on public perceptions of climate change's impacts on the coastline and sea. Though conducted in Europe, it manages to reveal some characteristics of general public opinion, especially those opinions that may be standing in the way of finding viable solutions to climate change.

The poll revealed that though worried citizens take personal actions toward more sustainable living, they place most of the blame for climate change on other nations, and assign responsibility to governments and corporations. Dror Etzion, of the McGill School of Environment and the Desautels Faculty of Management, is unsurprised by this. "[The] government is often a whipping boy for these concerns, but the same is true for issues like education, health, and quality of life in general, so it is not unique to environmental concerns," he says. But if the European public is hoping that these feelings will elicit a more rapid response from governments, it may be severely disappointed. When asked if governments would feel any pressure from publications such as this recent synthesis, Etzion replied that they would not feel any pressure in the near future.

So how does this European research synthesis relate to our North American perceptions and reality? How would a public opinion poll in Canada compare to the poll featured in this study? Etzion thinks a poll would produce similar results in Canada, asserting that we do tend to blame other nations and governments. He added, "In North America the situation is worse, in that many individuals do not pursue personal measures to the extent that is done in Europe." This is an incredibly dangerous attitude to have when we live in a country where close to 60 per cent of municipal water usage comes from residential usage. This startling statistic does not even take into account the fact that, in several provinces, less than 5 per cent of residential water users are metered while almost 100 per cent of business users are. In addition to this, water for agricultural use is largely not metered, and even free...

Read full article: , October 3, 2011