Climate Change A Bigger Threat To Canadians Than Terrorists

[The Dean of Green]

[B][COLOR="DarkGreen"]Climate Change A Bigger Threat To Canadians Than Terrorists[/COLOR][/B]


By Kevin Grandia

Managing editor, DeSmogBlog.com
Posted: January 11, 2010 01:53 PM


A new poll commissioned by the Canadian Defense & Foreign Affairs Institute on "Threat Perceptions" finds that climate change is perceived as the most "critical threat" to Canadians.

49% of Canadians rank climate change as a critical threat, while only 28% (down from 49% in 2004) say that international terrorism is a critical threat to the vital interests of their country.

All regions report high levels of concern with Quebec the highest at 62% and Alberta the least concerned at 28%.

The poll was conducted by the Innovative Research Group between December 22, 2009 and January 4, 2010. The weighted total sample included 1,229 responses eligible for inclusion in our analysis. There were over samples in BC, Alberta and Ontario which bring the total sample of 1,877.

An earlier poll by Innovative conducted after the Copenhagen climate conference found that half of Canadians disapproved of the Canadian government's position at the international summit, but 44% said it would not make a difference on whether they were more or less likely to vote for the governing Conservative party.

[solarant]

In a way, I’m not surprised. Had the poll been conducted in the US or in countries like India (where people have seen terrorism), I have little doubt that terrorism would have been rated as a far greater threat. Guess it has to do with the fact that Canada has not (thank your stars) experienced much terrorism so far.
Anyway, that’s not to deny the fact the climate change is an important concern all over the world; perhaps it is not the top most priority, but an important concern all the same. So much so, a report predicts that over [URL="http://powerplantccs.com/blog/2010/03/carbon-capture-boom-100-co2-capture-projects-56-billion-in-a-decade.html"]$50 billion will be spent on capturing CO2 from power plants[/URL] and sequestering them. CO2 is one of the main constituents of the greenhouse gases, and power plants are the number one industry segment that contributes to over 30% of all fossil fuel CO2 emissions worldwide.

Coming back to the survey, I wonder what will indeed be the results if it were conducted in developing or underdeveloped countries? OK, terrorism might be a bigger threat according to them, but will climate change figure as an important threat at all? Hailing from India, I am not sure it will. The key reason being the lack of awareness among even many educated folks in these countries.