Climate Change: New survey shows growing public concern
7 December 2009
A new public opinion survey for BBC Scotland released today (Monday 7 December) shows growing public concern over climate change with nearly two-thirds of respondents saying it was an immediate and urgent problem.
Responding to the findings Dr Richard Dixon, Director of WWF Scotland, said:
"These results show growing recognition of the urgent need to reduce climate change emissions. Most people in Scotland also clearly recognise that their actions contribute to the problem. We can all do our bit to reduce emissions but these findings will also show politicians that they need to do their bit to deliver on Scotland's tough climate targets.
"The Scottish public are twice as concerned about climate change as they are about terrorism and overseas war. This strong support for action on climate change is exactly what we need in order to make the Copenhagen talks a success.
"Sadly there are still a small number of people ignoring all the scientific evidence and continuing to deny that climate change is really happening. Like those who delayed linking cancer with smoking they will be villified in the future, but people should not be conned into thinking there is any serious scientific doubt that climate change is real and getting worse."
Note for Editors
[1] The full results of the poll will be available on the BBC Scotland News website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8397853.stm
[2] The poll showed that 63% of those polled thought climate change was an immediate and urgent problem, up from 57% in a similar poll last year. Only 4% thought that climate change was not happening.
