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Failure to Address Energy Anxiety Could Derail Global Warming Policies, Survey Finds
In 10 years Peak Oil Could be a Bigger Threat Than Climate Change
By: Jon Dougal - Thursday, November 1, 2007
Source: Various Global Warming Resources
Rueters, the news agency, recently held a small companies seminar composed of companies in the oil, and alternative enerby fields. The conclusion from this informative forum was that rising petroleum prices could be a much bigger threat to the economies of the world than the threats of droughts and floods and resulting food shortages caused by climate change.
However, these conclusions only looked at the next decade, surely climate change is likely to have a greater effect on the global economy over a 50-year timespan, according to those executives from old and new energy companies. "In a short-term scenario it is hard to say climate change is going to be a differentiating factor," said Jack MacDonald, finance director of carbon cutting project developer EcoSecurities.
"If oil prices quadruple it is probably more of a challenge to the economy than climate change," he said. But he added high oil prices would force businesses to tackle climate change earlier, as it is a greater problem in the longer term. Peter Bance, chief executive of fuel cell domestic boiler maker Ceres Power, said the world can cope with both pressures in the short term, but there were signs that natural catastrophes were already forcing a radical rethink.
"Hurricane Katrina woke people in the U.S. up in a very big way, even though it was not necessarily 100 percent linked to climate change," he said. While the oil price has tripled in the past decade, without any major consequences." The fight to tap oil fields in Alaska, the Arctic and Antarctic will be the key battleground between climate change campaigners and old, fossil-fuel based, energy firms. Whyms thinks.
"The battle will probably come to a head on something emotive, like spoiling Antarctica," he said. A new survey on global warming released by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Breakthrough Institute people are more concerned about the price of gas and electricity than they are about global warming.
However, it also found support for climate-change solutions that are centered on achieving energy independence, reducing the cost of clean energy, and creating new jobs. The Nathan Cummings Foundation Global Warming Survey found that global warming continues to rank low as a priority for Americans, who continue to be extremely anxious about energy costs. Moreover, messages about the potential catastrophic effects of global warming do not increase support for government action.
Of the major global warming policy proposals that have been advanced, investment in clean technology is the most popular. The survey followed a review of public opinion on energy and global warming released earlier this summer, which found that voters consistently rate energy costs as a higher concern than global warming and resist policies that would increase the cost of electricity and gasoline.
A CNN 2007 survey found that only 51% of Americans believe that Global warming is a threat tot he future economy, while 42% didn't think it was caused by man and was not a threat to the future. China, Japan, India and the UK polled 71% thinking that Golbal Heating was a threat. Analyzing the reason for America's position on this issue might conclude that the War and healthcare, and maybe even the elections hold a preponderance of thinking energy.
The latest survey confirmed the earlier analysis, with global warming ranked last among the sixteen issues tested. The survey also divided the sample to observe the effects of various "psychological primes" on global warming public opinion, including using specific consequences of global warming expressed by the environmental community, such as the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
Telling voters about these consequences did not increase their desire to take action on global warming. While voters expressed initial support for a variety of potential government actions — with support for an "Apollo-type" investment strategy scoring the highest, referring to the 1960s program that placed man on the moon — when told of the potential of such programs, support dropped precipitiously.
Only the Apollo-type investment proposal retained support from a majority of voters. "This poll demonstrates that getting the policy right means getting the politics right," said Lance Lindblom, president of the Cummings Foundation.
"Elegant policy prescriptions that cannot generate the political support necessary won't do anything to effectively address the challenges of global climate change." “New Poll Finds Hurdles, Opportunity on Global Warming.” Nathan Cummings Foundation Press Release 9/26/07. ©2007 Foundation CenterAll rights reserved. By Chris Wills and John Bowker LONDON (Reuters) -
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