New Climate Change Poll Did Not Ask the Right Question (CKNW)

August 20, 2012: Listen to “CKNW Morning News” on CKNW Radio, Vancouver, Canada with guest host Jon McComb and International Climate Science Coalition Executive Director, Tom Harris.

To be of significance, public opinion surveys must ask the most important question of all:

“Do you believe that emissions of carbon dioxide from human activities are causing dangerous global warming and other problematic climate change?”

It must be “dangerous” climate change that is being asked about. Anything less than dangerous, while interesting to scientists, is of no concern to politicians who continue to divert billions of dollars to the climate file while important social programs remain underfunded.

It is meaningless to say that Canadians “overwhelmingly believe climate change is real and is occurring, at least in part due to human activity,” as stated by Carmen Dybwad, CEO of IPAC-CO2 Research Inc., the group for whom the survey was conducted. Most Canadians have heard of ice ages and so obviously know that climate change is “real”. People also recognize that it is usually warmer in cities than in the countryside so, at least on a regional basis, we cause significant climate change as our urban areas expand.

Insightrix needs to rerun the poll, this time asking Canadians about what actually matters.