Most People Think Global Warming Won’t Affect Them
- Posted by: Zach Frechette
- on April 27, 2009 at 6:10 pm
An interesting new study (.pdf) confirms a long-held suspicion of politicians and, more importantly, anyone working in the field of climate change awareness: Americans are only worried about global warming abstractly.
As the chart at the left illustrates, the things people are most concerned with when it comes to global warming (climate change, as we prefer to say) are as far removed from the individual as possible—including “Future Generations of People” and “Plant and Animal Species.” Practically speaking, this helps explain why we’ve been so slow to act on agressive climate change legislation, and why we’re so easily distracted from the topic as soon as anything (like a collapsing economy) comes up.
Via FiveThirtyEight.
DISCUSSION: 11 Comments
It’s true. I too only think of global warming as a ‘bigger problem that doesn’t really affect me’, though I know it will at some point.I do realize it’s a bigger problem than I make it out to be, but I think it’s also partly due to the fact that it feels as though I can do nothing to change it.
This is a FANTASTIC graphic!
Depending on where you live, it could have a serious affect just based on the fact that people will move to regions that are more hospitable. I know some environmentalists believe the Pacific NW will likely be a hot spot to move to as conditions in other regions worsen. I’ll let you imagine some of the possible consequences of that. People need to find it within themselves to stop distancing themselves from “plants and species” or “people in developing nations.” It’s not called “developing nations warming” for a reason…(because it’s GLOBAL). The environment is where you live.
I think of it every day as this generation pressing a pillow against the sleeping faces of our unborn grandchildren. What we’re doing is horrific, and it makes all previous atrocities insignificant by comparison.I think most people are unable to occupy their minds with events they reason will occur after they plan to be dead. If you do care about the survival of our species, climate change is literally the only problem that we should be expending our energies on. Social justice, the economy, weapons proliferation—none of these matter if we can’t figure out how to keep the globe habitable. Right now, we have a series of tiny, partial fixes in mind, and we can’t even muster the political will to implement those stopgap measures.The death of billions is beginning to look like the *favorable* outcome.
Awesome! Now the information of how it affects people directly should be released so that change can occur with more support.
I don’t care about the survival of our species. I don’t overly contribute to this issue. Its a self balancing equation, the planet will heat up/freeze up killing enough of the human population to begin restoring balance to the system. Relax be happy and enjoy.
If it affects our plants and animals, then for sure, it will affect us humans….
I would rather request to visit Bangladesh to feel the Global Warming. Bangladesh will be facing the worst scenario or outcome of this situation what we are facing now !!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4ozVMxzNAA30 years and not much has improved
Okay. I’m not contesting the fact that people tend to think things will affect other people and not themselves. But in addition to that, as you go down that pyramid, the population sizes are also trending downward. If global warming will affect 1 in 100, I individually have a 1% chance of being affected. My family is 4 people, so my family has a 4% chance of being affected. And you can keep going. Again, I don’t doubt the general trend being noticed here really exists, but I also know that this is not proof of that trend.
It’s amazing how people (especially Americans it seems) don’t think that their actions will have any adverse effects. This is a great way to show this.