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"Most Australians overestimate how much they are doing for the environment compared to others, and are more concerned about water shortages, pollution and household waste than climate change, a new CSIRO survey reveals. Taken over a period of July to August last year, it is the latest in a series of annual national surveys on Australians' attitudes to climate change involving more than 5000 people from across urban, regional, and rural Australia. (You can read about past survey results here and here.)"

"..... an Australian Bureau of Statistics survey of Victorian households' energy and water use skewers the myth that solar panels are mostly going up on the roofs of the well-off. The survey found income had little effect on solar take-up."

"A national survey on energy affordability carried out by CHOICE, the Brotherhood of St Laurence and Energy Efficiency Council revealed 84 per cent of Australian households are concerned or very concerned about energy costs. The same percentage felt it was important or very important for their State Government to help rein in these costs.     However, instead of screaming for renewable energy support to be hit to cut the cost of power - a default choice it seems for many politicians - this was the least popular action in the survey. In fact, knee-capping renewables had a negative net approval rating in every state. "

"There is growing evidence that public opinion about climate change is shifting over time. In many countries, surveys reveal that people are becoming less worried, and in some cases more sceptical about climate change, even while awareness of climate change is increasing."

Our social scientist Dr Zoe Leviston discusses some of the findings in our 4th annual survey of Australian attitudes towards climate change. Video transcript available here: http://www.csiro.au/news/transcripts/... View the full report here: http://bit.ly/1ezxUn0

"A paper published in Nature Climate Change earlier this year challenged a long-standing assumption in both science education and science communication: that increasing science literacy will increase public "acceptance" of the scientific consensus on the risks posed by climate change. The authors surveyed a representative sample of about 1,500 U.S. adults and found that people with an egalitarian-communitarian worldview (roughly liberal) were more likely to perceive climate change to be higher risk with higher levels of science literacy, while for people with a hierarchical-individualist worldview (roughly conservative), higher science literacy scores meant they were more likely to underestimate the risks associated with climate change. If the assumption that science literacy is the solution had held, both groups would have moved toward rating climate change as higher risk as they increased in science knowledge, to line up with current scientific consensus. Instead, increasing science knowledge correlated with increasingly polarized views."

"In Spring 2013, we conducted our latest national survey on Americans' climate change and energy beliefs, attitudes, policy support, and behavior. The first report focuses on Americans' beliefs about extreme weather and climate change. We found that about six in ten Americans (58%) say "global warming is affecting weather in the United States." Many Americans believe global warming made recent extreme weather and climatic events "more severe," specifically: 2012 as the warmest year on record in the United States (50%); the ongoing drought in the Midwest and the Great Plains (49%); Superstorm Sandy (46%); and Superstorm Nemo (42%). We also found that about two out of three Americans say weather in the U.S. has been worse over the past several years, up 12 percentage points since Spring 2012. The report can be downloaded here: Extreme Weather and Climate Change in the American Mind, April 2013."