Australia Leads The World In Climate Change Denial, Global Study Says

A fairly significant margin sets us apart as the country most likely to deny climate change around the world, according to the study of close to 20,000 people. 17% of Australians surveyed were categorised as climate change “sceptics”; while 13% of us were “not very concerned” or “not concerned” about the effects of climate change. 

To give some perspective, Norway, New Zealand and USA came behind Australia in climate change sceptic numbers, with 15%, 13% and 12% denying climate change respectively. Countries in Europe were less likely to be sceptical, with Spain only seeing 2% of its population denying climate change.

CC: old mate.
CC: his chief business advisor. 

The study affirmed some aspects of the conversation on climate change that we had already taken as truisms: men are more likely to deny climate change than women; older people are more likely to than young people; those who identify with right-wing or conservative politics are more likely to than those leaning to the left. 

The news comes off the back of another study released this week that charted reactions to global “threats” in 40 countries. While the study concluded that climate change was the most “concerning” threat perceived by the global population as a whole; in Australia, the threat of climate change was considered to be a “very concerning” issue by 37% of the population, compared to 69% of those surveyed “very concerned” about ISIS and 38% on Iran’s Nuclear Program. Among the global study, Australia was the 12th least-concerned about climate change.