Nearly Half of Australians Believe Signing Kyoto was a Waste of Time

Nearly half of Australians believe signing Kyoto was a waste of time

News.com.au survey finds 73 per cent of Australians believe the Rudd Government is not doing enough to combat climate change 44 per cent of news.com.au readers believe the signing of the Kyoto Protocol - a cornerstone of Kevin Rudd’s re-election campaign – was a waste of time and has had no beneficial effect on climate change.

News.com.au editor, David Higgins, said the survey of 1,122 news.com.au readers, conducted by CoreData, found that just 14 per cent believed Kyoto had helped curb the effects of climate change and that 73 per cent of readers believed the Rudd Government was not doing enough or could be doing more to combat climate change.

“This survey shows how concerned Australians about climate change and how little faith they have in our leaders to tackle the problem,” he said.

“Around half the country thinks Kyoto was a waste of time, and three quarters of all Australians think the Rudd government is under-performing.”

Mr Higgins said the survey also found that men were far more likely than women to be climate change sceptics. “Men are twice as likely as women to believe Australia’s signing of the Kyoto Protocol was of no benefit,” he said.

“While 85 per cent of women said there was enough evidence to link human activity to climate change, only 54 per cent of men agreed,” he said.

55 per cent of Australians believe climate change will alter day-to-day life during the next decade but roughly half say it is “truly possible” to resolve the issue.

One in five news.com.au readers believe polar bears are doomed regardless of any action that might be taken to stem their demise.

Mr Higgins said readers’ views were shared by the experts, with the US Geological Survey’s Steven Amstrup believing polar bear numbers would fall regardless of what action is taken to save them.

Closer to home, the survey also asked respondents to nominate the Australian animal they would choose to save if they could only save one – 37 per cent nominated the koala, 30 per cent the kangaroo, 29 per cent nominated wombats while just 4 per cent would save the emu.

The survey coincides with news.com.au’s launch of an environmental dashboard, which measures the state of the planet according to such factors as the rate of species extinction, global carbon emissions, sea levels, temperature, rates of deforestation and population growth.

The dashboard forms a key part of a dedicated, in-depth page devoted to coverage of climate change.

The environmental dashboard and climate change page can be viewed here - http://www.news.com.au/environment