8 Questions: Climate change

Last year was the warmest on record, with global temperatures 0.69°C above the long-term average, according to US scientists. This month’s 8 Questions is on climate change. 375 readers responded

 1. Do you believe that man-made climate change is occurring?

Yes: 75%
No: 14%
Don't know: 11%

We have asked this question before over the years, and the 75% Yes vote recorded here is noticeably higher than it was previously. It seems that with weather patterns becoming ever more unpredictable, a growing number of engineers believe that man-made activities are having an impact on climate change. But lots of readers were still not convinced they were the dominant factor in global warming.

2. Do you think climate fluctuations are entirely due to natural weather cycles?

Although human activity is causing some level of global warming, a significant amount is due to natural variation in weather patterns, it was felt. Respondents were frustrated that scientific data couldn’t separate the two.

The split vote here provided an interesting dichotomy, based around the thorny issue of international consensus. Many of the Yes voters wanted more money spent on fighting climate change, but they were concerned that such actions would ultimately be wasteful unless other countries took similar decisive action. The No respondents, meanwhile, voted that way because they felt global effort was so unlikely. 

4. Are you concerned that climate change has fallen down the list of political priorities in recent years?

Yes: 54%

The ‘austerity’ that has followed the 2008 financial crash means the government has concentrated on restoring the economy to some semblance of normality rather than addressing environmental concerns, a slim majority of readers felt. But alarmingly unpredictable weather patterns meant this couldn’t continue for much longer, it was said.

5. Do you think there will ever be a global consensus involving all major nations on tackling climate change?

Many readers said that the global response to climate change would continue to be too little, too late, and would be reactive rather than proactive. It was felt that nations would respond only when the impact of climate change was felt keenly by them. In the British Isles, one dramatic repercussion could be rising sea levels, and more than half our readers felt that such a threat would have big social and economic impacts over the next 20 years, with coastal erosion leading to changing population spreads. Others were less convinced. Many of the No voters pointed out what they perceived to be a lack of authoritative scientific data to prove that sea levels were showing any signs of rising.

Many engineers understand the concept of finite energy resource and have taken action accordingly. Efforts to reduce a personal carbon footprint were actually methods to reduce monthly costs, it was noted. Many No voters felt their own personal actions would have such a negligible impact on carbon emissions as to make them worthless. Several readers noted concerns about the recent drop in the price of oil, fearing that it would lead to a noticeable decrease in interest to control mankind’s carbon footprint.

The Green party is enjoying a surge in support, according to opinion polls, mainly due to voter dissatisfaction with the mainstream political parties. But despite growing concerns over climate change, the vast majority of our readers don’t think the Greens will emerge as a major political party any time soon. The reasons were manifold. Readers felt that, by its nature, the Green party had policies that were too narrowly focused on the environment and failed to address other areas of concern, such as the economy. There were also fears that the Green party gave little thought to employment opportunities, and that it offered little vision for the role that engineering might play in a more balanced economy. So come the general election in May, engineers won’t be voting Green, it seems.