belief in climate change, climate change, climate change acceptance
Q. Do you believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity or do you believe that the evidence is still not in and we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate which happens from time to time?
| Jan’21 | Jan’20 | Nov’19 | Mar’19 | Oct’18 | Sep’17 | Aug’16 | |
| Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity | 58% | 56% | 61% | 62% | 63% | 64% | 57% |
| We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate | 32% | 32% | 28% | 27% | 25% | 24% | 26% |
| Don’t know | 10% | 13% | 11% | 12% | 13% | 12% | 17% |
| Base (n) | 1,084 | 1,081 | 1,083 | 1,089 | 1,027 | 1,011 | 1,022 |
| Total | Gender | Age Group | Federal Voting Intention | |||||||||
| Male | Female | 18-34 | 35-54 | 55+ | Labor | TOTAL: Coalition | Greens | TOTAL: Other | ||||
| Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity | 58% | 54% | 61% | 62% | 58% | 54% | 67% | 50% | 78% | 45% | ||
| We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate | 32% | 36% | 28% | 24% | 31% | 40% | 24% | 43% | 17% | 44% | ||
| Don’t know | 10% | 9% | 11% | 15% | 11% | 6% | 9% | 7% | 5% | 11% | ||
| Base (n) | 1,084 | 539 | 545 | 341 | 358 | 385 | 334 | 431 | 118 | 106 | ||
belief in climate change, climate change
Q. Do you believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity or do you believe that the evidence is still not in and we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate which happens from time to time?
| Total | Vote Lab | Vote Lib/ Nat | Vote GRN | Vote other | Nov 2009 | Dec 2010 | Jun 2011 | Oct 2012 | Oct 2013 | Dec 2014 | Mar 2015 | |||
| Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity | 56% | 70% | 40% | 95% | 43% | 53% | 45% | 50% | 48% | 52% | 57% | 54% | ||
| We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate | 31% | 20% | 50% | 5% | 42% | 34% | 36% | 39% | 39% | 36% | 29% | 31% | ||
| Don’t know | 12% | 10% | 10% | – | 15% | 13% | 19% | 12% | 13% | 12% | 14% | 15% |
56% (up 2% since March) agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 31% (no change) believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate. This is the second highest belief in climate change recorded over the last 6 years.
By age groups, those aged under 35 split 63%/21% and those aged 55+ split 47%/45%. People with higher education were more likely to think climate change is happening and is caused by human activity – those with university degrees split 68%/22%.
Q. Do you believe that there is fairly conclusive evidence that climate change is happening and caused by human activity or do you believe that the evidence is still not in and we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate which happens from time to time?
|
Total |
|
Vote Labor |
Vote Lib/Nat |
Vote Greens |
Vote other |
|
Nov 09 |
Dec 10 |
Jun 11 |
Oct 12 |
Oct 13 |
Jan 14 |
Apr 14 |
|
| Climate change is happening and is caused by human activity |
53% |
69% |
31% |
88% |
44% |
53% |
45% |
50% |
48% |
52% |
51% |
56% |
||
| We are just witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate |
35% |
20% |
57% |
11% |
43% |
34% |
36% |
39% |
39% |
36% |
39% |
34% |
||
| Don’t know |
12% |
11% |
12% |
1% |
13% |
13% |
19% |
12% |
13% |
12% |
11% |
10% |
53% (down 3% since April) agree that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity and 35% (up 1%) believe that we may just be witnessing a normal fluctuation in the earth’s climate.
By age groups, those aged under 35 split 61%/23% and those aged 55+ split 42%/48%. People with higher education were more likely to think climate change is happening and is caused by human activity – those with university degrees split 62%/27%.