U.S./U.K. Consumers Grok Climate Change, They're Just 'Eco-Apathetic'
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden 
on 05.13.08
Whose more ready to remedy climate change - North or South? Graphic by lumaxart
This is weird and perverse. UK-based Havas Media surveyed nearly 12,000 consumers in Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the U.S. and found that while respondents in the U.S. have the greatest understanding of climate change, they also have the lowest levels of concern. That pattern holds true, according to Havas, in the UK as well - both in the U.S. and the UK 34% of surveyed consumers are 'eco-apathetic' i.e. they recognize the climate change concept but take little responsibility for it. Germany shares a similar weirdness - very high recognition, lower sense of responsibility.
You could chalk it up to a wonky survey, except that a Norwegian University of Science and Technology questionnaire found nearly the same - the bigger a country's carbon footprint, the less it cared. In many so-called developing nations, the pattern is different, with much smaller percentages of 'apathetic' consumers and higher percentages of those either attentive to or even absorbed in the climate change issue. Havas created its survey to sell green marketing help to big companies, so perhaps it's no surprise that they conclude consumers want big brands to get out and save the world (only 11 percent of global respondents think government is doing its best) to give us products we want without effecting our quality of life. Luckily TreeHugger helps us keep redefining that QOL. Via ::HavasMedia
See also: Hope + Glory Why Is Green Marketing The Way Forward? and Green Branding And Marketing: Who's Out Front?
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Oh, that's easy. It's because a big carbon footprint brings big luxury and convenience.
Just ask any American: would you give up your car, your air conditioning, *and* your big-screen TV if you knew that your single act of sacrifice would save the entire world?
I would bet that 90% would say no. Especially to the AC. It's bloody hot in the US.
What will it take to convince people (esp Americans) we have real problems that need real solutions?
And how will it be clear that enough is being done? All these changes I've made over the last decade, how do I know I've done enough?
I think one reason for the U.S. apathy is that most people are so far removed from the planet and nature... From our homes, to our food, to entertainment.
Another is an expectation, subconscious to most, that the government is taking care of us: if Product X on the shelf at the store is really so bad for the environment and me, the government wouldn't allow it to be produced and sold.
I personally think that as a country moves more towards industrialization, it loses it's collective sustainability "intelligence". Things that were done for centuries just disappear, replaced with mass-produced products which usually are not as earth-friendly as predecessors.
We just don't become industrialized, we become mentally removed from the planet we live on. We cease to understand the symbiotic relationship we have with it.
So, when someone tells the average U.S. citizen that he or she needs to stop using plastic water bottles, s/he figures that sure, that sounds great and in theory s/he understands it's bad for the planet and some people think it's bad for me... but they still allow them to produce and sell them, so it really must be ok. I'll just let everyone else stop using them, and when they put an alternative on the shelf I'll try that.
Now, put that same person on a farm and make them pull those plastic bottles out of their soil before s/he can plant crops to sell and support his/her family and you'd have a completely different perspective.
I think one reason for the U.S. apathy is that most people are so far removed from the planet and nature... From our homes, to our food, to entertainment.
Another is an expectation, subconscious to most, that the government is taking care of us: if Product X on the shelf at the store is really so bad for the environment and me, the government wouldn't allow it to be produced and sold.
I personally think that as a country moves more towards industrialization, it loses it's collective sustainability "intelligence". Things that were done for centuries just disappear, replaced with mass-produced products which usually are not as earth-friendly as predecessors.
We just don't become industrialized, we become mentally removed from the planet we live on. We cease to understand the symbiotic relationship we have with it.
So, when someone tells the average U.S. citizen that he or she needs to stop using plastic water bottles, s/he figures that sure, that sounds great and in theory s/he understands it's bad for the planet and some people think it's bad for me... but they still allow them to produce and sell them, so it really must be ok. I'll just let everyone else stop using them, and when they put an alternative on the shelf I'll try that.
Now, put that same person on a farm and make them pull those plastic bottles out of their soil before s/he can plant crops to sell and support his/her family and you'd have a completely different perspective.
Could it not also be the more informed you are the more you realize that the only thing that's settled in the science is that 'the world has increased in temperature 0.7C in the past 100 years". Other than this fact alone there is little consensus, and until better facts are found and proven little needs to be done and we should concentrate on verifiable problems like Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Potable water for the planet, etc etc etc. . .
---author's reply ---
you may well be right but I can see a lot of other reasons that clean energy is a good idea and energy resources would probably not be put to the other problems you mentioned (though important) anyway.