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The disastrous results of local weather change are plain to see: in current weeks devastating wildfires have torn by way of giant swathes of Europe and heatwaves have killed greater than 1,000 individuals in Portugal and Spain. However attitudes in the direction of local weather change range considerably. A current research discovered that two components can predict concern concerning the warming world: GDP and gender (see chart 1).
Sarah Bush and Amanda Clayton, two political scientists, drew on 9 cross-national surveys and focus teams that collectively lined greater than 100 international locations between 2010 and 2021. First, they discovered that individuals surveyed in poorer international locations rated local weather change as a extra significant issue than these in wealthier international locations. They have been additionally extra prone to reply that they anticipate to be personally affected by a altering local weather. That’s hardly stunning. Poorer international locations are usually much less ready and thus extra weak to excessive climate, reminiscent of heatwaves and floods.
The extra peculiar discovering was how individuals’s gender correlated with their responses. Most individuals, of any gender, recognise that local weather change is a menace. However in additional rich international locations males have been extra probably than girls to reply that they weren’t involved about it. Take America. In a single survey by Pew Analysis Centre, a think-tank, 20% of males stated that local weather change is “not an issue”, whereas solely 8% of ladies agreed. However as GDP per particular person decreases, the chasm between women and men narrows. In Britain, the world’s fifth-largest economic system, 11% of males answered that they weren’t involved about local weather change in contrast with 4% of ladies. The hole narrowed additional nonetheless in South Africa, to a distinction of simply two share factors. In Uganda, one of many world’s poorest international locations, the sample narrowly reversed: 2.4% of the ladies surveyed stated that they weren’t involved about local weather change, in contrast with only one.7% of males.
The explanations for this hole are advanced and extremely depending on variables in wealthy and poor international locations. The hole in rich international locations persevered amongst women and men no matter their degree of training, family earnings or political opinions—so these traits alone don’t clarify the distinction. Local weather concern in rich international locations dropped particularly dramatically amongst males (see chart 2). Research have discovered that males in wealthy international locations have an even bigger carbon footprint than girls, so they could really feel they’ve extra to lose from insurance policies that restrict emissions. Certainly the authors discovered that males surveyed in rich international locations have been 50% extra probably than girls to say that they feared a monetary toll from inexperienced insurance policies. Even if that is so, dismissing the dangers of local weather change is dangerously short-sighted. The results for everybody of a warming world will likely be way more painful. ■
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