photo by 350.org (Flickr CC)

Will the youth of China and Brazil lead the way in the new environmental ‘Great Leap Forward’ while British and American young people languish in egomaniacal tweets and preposterous dreams of stardom, not giving two cares about the future of the planet?

A recent survey by the Carbon Trust attempts to measure concern about CO2 and climate change in young populations around the world – and the results may surprise you.

The scope of the survey focuses on the awareness and consumer values of young adults in 6 different countries on 5 continents – The US, UK, China, South Korea, Brazil and South Africa – as they relate to climate change. Not a fully comprehensive survey, but one that can perhaps offer some insight into the mindset of many of the Earth’s future consumers.

An average of 33% of all young people surveyed said they would be more likely to pay more for products with a lower carbon footprint. Higher average percentages (78 and 70) resulted when youth were asked if they would like their favorite brands to reduce their carbon footprint and if this would make them more loyal customers, respectively.

From the New Statesman:

Eighty-one per cent of those questioned in Brazil said that companies should be obliged to provide proof of their policy to reduce their carbon footprint, higher than any other nation; 68 per cent of those surveyed worldwide want to see companies’ carbon impact quantified by an independent organisation. This is highest in China at 84 per cent and lowest in the US at 55 per cent.

When asked if they would stop buying products from a company that refused to commit to reducing its carbon footprint 60% in China said they would, followed by 57% in Brazil, 53% in Korea, 36% in the UK and 35% in the US. Apparently, not caring is still cool for the youth of America.

The Carbon Trust is a ‘not for dividend’ private company formed by the British Government to foster a low carbon economy by encouraging organizations to lower their carbon footprints by improved technology, management and efficiency.

Later this week, the Carbon Trust will launch its Standard in Korea and announce the first four Asian companies to receive the Carbon Trust Standard for reducing their organisational carbon footprints.  And today it opens a novel new exhibition in London to showcase company action on carbon.  The world’s first ‘Carbon Footprinting’ Gallery, will explore the proactive steps global brands, including Tesco, Danone, Manchester United and BT, are taking to lower their carbon footprint.  The exhibition takes place at the Future Gallery in London from 2nd April – 4th April.

–Carbon Trust press release

Read the entire press release and download a copy of the report, entitled ‘A global survey of young adult’s perceptions of carbon and climate change’ (incorrect use of apostrophe noted).

photo by Yersinia pestis (Yersinia on Flickr Creative Commons)

Butterflies in the UK are on the decline due to human activity and now the British public is being urged to participate in a nationwide survey called The Big Butterfly Count.

During Save Our Butterflies Week – July 24^th to August 1^st – residents of the UK are asked to take 15 minutes to go out and count butterflies in cities, parks, forests and fields.

But it’s not just because butterflies are pretty insects, they also play valuable roles in ecosystems and are seen as environmental bellwethers.

From an article in the Guardian:

Butterflies and moths are sensitive to environmental change, which makes them a good indicator of the state of the countryside. They are essential for the pollination of plants, and caterpillars provide food for many birds and other wildlife.

The past three years have seen butterfly numbers in the UK drop by unprecedented levels. During the past 50 years more than three quarters of British butterfly species have declined, according to a piece in the Telegraph.

The decline is blamed on a loss of the insects’ natural habitat, but also on fashions in UK gardening, such as landscaping public parks or building decking and small houses in private gardens.

President of the Butterfly Conservation, Sir David Attenborough, believes that besides being an important environmental survey, The Big Butterfly Count ‘should be great fun’.

In a reversal of Britain’s butterfly and moth situation, colorful European damselflies have been invading southern England. Damselflies were wiped out from the UK by flooding in the winter of 1953.

Their return is believed to be part of a larger trend of animals migrating due to climate change.

From an article in the Independent:

In fact, the march of the damselflies is only one aspect of a much wider, continuing invasion of southern Britain, possibly caused by the warming climate, by a range of continental creatures which can fly – both insects and birds. Insects in particular are flooding in, and over the past decade a whole series of continental bees, wasps, moths, butterflies, dragonflies and grasshoppers has appeared here.

Graham Land

Additional resources:

bigbutterflycount.org

photo by C.Grodotzki/Robin Wood e.V. (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

In light of a recent survey naming UK companies as the worst among 300 of Europe’s largest corporations when it comes to their contribution to global warming, another survey has been released, this time focusing only on British firms.

The new list, called the FTSE carbon strategy index, compares Britain’s 350 biggest companies in terms of their response to climate change. The idea is that those companies with the best carbon strategies will also be the most efficient and well run.

From an article in the Guardian:

The new FTSE carbon strategy index weighs up the “carbon risk and performance” of the UK’s largest 350 firms. It compares them on cutting carbon emissions, making their products more energy-efficient and setting the most ambitious reduction targets.

The Anglo-Dutch multinational Unilever, which makes just about every type of consumable you can think of, tops the FTSE list. Unilever plans to cut emissions by 25% by 2012 and has improved its ‘carbon efficiency’ (emissions per ₤) by 40% since 1995.

After Unilever, the index lists BT Group, Morissons and Rolls Royce as the next best-performing major companies. Coal-fired power station operator Drax and low-cost airline Easyjet come in last place.

So what made Unilever get its act together? According to a piece in the Economist entitled ‘The campaign against palm oil: The other oil spill’, pressure from green activist groups, such as Greenpeace, prompted Unilever to promise to source only sustainable palm oil by 2015.

Deforestation and the destruction of peatlands in Indonesia and Malaysia for logging and for conversion to palm oil plantations are responsible for massive amounts of carbon emissions. Unilever is the world’s single largest buyer of palm oil.

Graham Land

photo by evillynn (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

Ethical investment consultant firm Eiris has judged 300 of Europe’s top companies in terms of their contribution to global warming and found that more than half are UK-based. Eiris found that the number of British companies determined to have a ‘very high impact on global warming’ was double that of any other country.

Of those companies in the top 300 dedicated to solving or mitigating the problems of climate change, only 3% were located in Britain. Eiris’s findings come at a time when BP, one of the UK’s best-known companies, has attracted bad publicity worldwide over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

–Guardian

Despite climate change appearing to be high on the UK political agenda, the survey tells a different story: the prevalence of big oil and mining companies on London’s FTSE 100 index.

Out of the 300 major European companies surveyed, Eiris estimates that 41% have a significant impact on global warming. While large UK firms came out looking worst, those of France and Germany were found to be doing the most to mitigate or combat climate change.

Read the full story in the Guardian: Eiris review names Britain as ‘dirty man of Europe’

Graham Land

photo by db™ (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

A new survey of UK residents conducted by the University of Cardiff shows that public acceptance of climate change is alive and well in Britain.

From an article in the Guardian:

The survey showed that almost three-quarters (71%) of Britons are concerned about climate change. Some 78% think the climate is changing, which is down from 91% who said it was in a similar poll in 2005.

In recent months, a considerable amount of fanfare has been given to a decline in public opinion regarding the veracity of climate change or global warming in both the US and UK. But new polls – as well as reinterpretations of existing polls – show that faith in climate science and climate change remain strong in both countries.

While it is true that several recent polls have shown a rise in skepticism concerning what the scientific establishment says about anthropogenic climate change, the vast majority still trusts the science.

For example, a BBC poll from February showed that Britons’ belief in global warming fell from 83% to 75% since November 2009. A significant drop, but still a more than healthy majority. A Populus poll, commissioned by the London Times and visible via the same link, showed an even starker rise in climate skepticism in the UK. A Gallup poll of Americans, published in March, also showed a drop in ‘global warming concerns’.

These polls all followed a particularly cold winter for most of Europe and the US, plus a couple of scandals involving the IPCC and climate scientists at University of East Anglia, both of which received lots of media attention and helped stoke political and public debate.

…a closer look at these polls and a new survey by my Political Psychology Research Group show just the opposite: huge majorities of Americans still believe the earth has been gradually warming as the result of human activity and want the government to institute regulations to stop it.

–New York Times op-ed

If belief in climate change is based on personal observations of local weather, it is just as likely to sway the other way if we experience a hot summer this year. Furthermore, the leader of the study at the University of Cardiff believes that the email scandal probably simply served to entrench already existing opinions on the issue. Economic health and the BP disaster also seem to play a part in public opinion, as indicated by a similar American survey by Yale and George Mason Universities, which showed and increase in faith in climate science since January.

The polls mentioned above, as well as interpretations of other polls, show strong political support for many climate and environmental initiatives in both the UK and the US. Though there are obviously segments that vehemently oppose nearly any political action on the environment, they are clearly in the minority.

Read both the Guardian article and this New York Times op-ed piece for more on the story.

by Graham Land

Additional resources:

Time Magazine – Leaving a Good Legacy

Conducted by National Geographic and the polling firm GlobeScan, Greendex’s chief goal is to gauge the impact of consumer behavior within the energy, transportation, travel and consumer goods sectors.

This quantitative consumer study of 17,000 consumers in a total of 17 countries (14 in 2008) asked about such behavior as energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the relative use of green products versus traditional products, attitudes towards the environment and sustainability, and knowledge of environmental issues. A group of international experts helped us determine the behaviors that were most critical to investigate.

–National Geographic

In terms of sustainability, consumers from India, Brazil and China scored top, with those from the US, Canada and Japan at the bottom of the list. Greendex found that although the economic downturn partly fuelled a shift towards sustainable behavior between 2008 and 2009, environmental concerns among consumers also played a significant part.

Read National Geographic’s article on the Greendex survey, view the informative interactive 2009 Greendex map, download the full results of the survey and calculate your own Greendex on the National Geographic Greendex site.

by Graham Land

photo by joysaphine (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

A survey by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) – a British charity dedicated to making the UK’s beaches and seas sustainable, clean and safe – gives Britain bad marks for coastal litter. The good news is that overall garbage on UK beaches went down 16% in 2009 compared to 2008, though the percentage of trash that was plastic hit an all time high of 64%.

From an article in the Guardian:

The volunteers who conducted the survey, the UK’s biggest, found one piece for each step along the shore. The results showed litter levels along the coasts have increased dramatically since 1994, from 1,000 items per kilometre to over 1,800 items. It also found that plastic litter was at its highest level ever.

This spells bad news for coastal communities that depend on tourism, as well as marine animals, who eat broken down plastic, thereby bringing toxins absorbed by the plastic into the food chain.

From a Press Association article:

Food wrappers, plastic rope, plastic caps and lids, drinks bottles, fishing nets and cotton bud sticks – which are often flushed down the toilet and not caught by sewage works – were all among the top 10 most frequently found items.

What was wrong with Q-tips that had cardboard sticks? Not good enough for British ears, apparently. Let the sea turtles choke on them.

From the Telegraph:

Rachel Bailey, MCS litter projects officer, said plastic was a particular problem for wildlife. For example seals entangled in fishing nets and leatherback turtles which have swallowed plastic.

by Graham land

Additional resources:

Marine Conservation Society campaign – Your Seas Your Voice

photo by ¡WOUW! (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

A census on marine life in the Antarctic called The British Antarctic Survey seeks to shed some light on how the wide variety of animals that live on the Antarctic sea floor might react to climate change.

According to the survey, which began in 2005, ‘the Polar Regions are amongst the fastest warming places on Earth’. Changes in winter sea ice levels, ocean acidification and rising temperatures are already reducing the population of krill, an important food source for Arctic penguins, seals and whales. Changes also favor an increase in the amount of jellyfish in the area.

From a BAS press release entitled ‘Understanding global climate change through new breakthroughs in Polar research’:

More than 6,000 different species living on the sea-floor have been identified so far and more than half of these are unique to the icy continent. A combination of long-term monitoring studies, newly gathered information on the marine life distribution and global ocean warming models, enable the scientists to identify Antarctica’s marine ‘biodiversity hotspots’.

The recent Antarctic iceberg collision, which resulted in a large iceberg breaking off from the Mertz Glacier Tongue, also constitutes a threat to wildlife in the region.

According to a BBC News report, global warming had nothing to do with the incident and British scientists have stated that the event should not cause changes in weather patterns or affect the global climate. But there is concern for the local ecosystem, particularly emperor penguin colonies and the local seal population.

“It is a very active area for algae growth, especially in springtime,” explained Dr Neal Young from the Australia-based Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre.

–BBC News

The Mertz Glacier event provides scientist with a rare opportunity for studying ocean circulation and – more importantly – how the events like this influence ocean ecosystems.

by Graham Land

Image Source: Flickr. By: NatalieMaynor.

A recent survey, conducted by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities, showed that although many Americans like the idea of conservation, most do not practice it in their everyday lives.

The survey was conducted between December 24, 2009 and January 3, 2010, and included nearly 1,000 adult Americans. While many Americans feel it is “very important” or “somewhat important” to turn off unnecessary lights (92%), lower the thermostat in winter (83%), and use public transportation or carpool (73%), there are quite a number who don’t always follow through with their conservation talk. Check out some of these ratings:

• Recycling at Home – 88% say it’s important, but only 51% actually do it.
• Re-usable Shopping Bags – 81% say it’s important to use them, but only 33% do.
• Buying Local Food – 76% say it’s important to buy food grown locally, but only 26% actually do.
• Walking/Biking – 76% say this is better to do than driving, but only 15% do.
• Public Transportation/Carpool – 72% claim this is important, but you’ll only find 10% actually doing it.

Despite some of these conflicting answers, there are several positive things that came from the survey, as well. For example: at least 70% of Americans feel that turning off electronics is important and actually do it. The survey also showed that nearly 33% of Americans rewarded companies that took steps to reduce global warming in 2009, by buying their products. However, only 11% bothered to contact government officials on the issue of global warming.

Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, stated:

“When it comes to taking a stand against global warming, concerned Americans are much more likely to take action through consumer purchases rather than as citizens. This lack of citizen engagement may help to explain why Congress is being so timid in addressing climate change.”

You can check out the full survey results on the Yale site here (.pdf file).

By Heidi Marshall