Interest lost in climate change?
Denver Daily News – January 18, 2011
Local advocacy groups say they are staying on message despite indication of less interest
As polls indicate that public interest in climate change and related environmental issues is waning, local environmental and consumer groups say they will stay on message to keep the issues on the public’s mind.
A poll by the Pew Research Center states that the public’s priorities for 2010 did not include global warming. In fact, global warming ranked last as a priority, with just 28 percent of the public considering it a top priority, according to the 2010 poll.
Climate change has always ranked low amongst priorities, said the Pew poll. But in recent years, interest has continually declined.
Some groups are turning to shock advertising as a means to capture the public’s attention. The British-based 10:10 campaign, which seeks to get people to cut their climate emissions by 10 percent in a year, ran a video that featured a teacher encouraging students to contribute to cutting pollution. Two students that appeared skeptical about contributing are quickly blown up by the teacher, spraying fellow classmates with blood. A similar situation takes place at an office when uncooperative employees are blown up later in the video. A coach is also blown up by his soccer team for not agreeing to join the campaign. The woman doing the voice-over for the ad is also blown up for thinking that her sole contribution was the voice-over, not agreeing to cut her climate emissions.