- Global warming number one concern for Aussies in coming six months
4 July 2007
Australia
Former US vice-president and recent environmental celebrity Al Gore has topped the list of most influential people to champion the cause of global warming in a 47-country Internet survey conducted by The Nielsen Company and Oxford University.
Over a quarter of Australian consumers (28%) picked Al Gore as the most influential spokesperson to champion the global warming debate (compared to 18% globally), ahead of talk show megastar Oprah Winfrey (23%) and PR stuntman Richard Branson (20%).
When asked to rank their concerns for the next six months, for the first time in the five year history of the Nielsen survey global warming ranked as the number one concern for Australian respondents – the highest level of concern around the Asia Pacific region and third highest globally.
“It’s clear that Al Gore’s recent visit to Australia shook us up as a nation and certainly raised Gore’s profile as a campaigner of global warming issues,” commented Luke Starick, Associate Director, Measurement Science, The Nielsen Company. “Australians are becoming more aware of the need to address climate change issues, and they see Gore as a natural choice to champion efforts to deal with climate change.”
The online Nielsen survey, the largest of its kind to be conducted globally on the topic of consumer attitudes to climate change, was conducted in April 2007 in conjunction with the Environmental Change Institute of Oxford University and polled 26,486 internet users across 47 countries in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, including 500 Australian internet users.
The survey found that Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, had had a significant influence on those that had seen it – in their awareness of the issues and their stated changes in habits and behaviours. Around 15 percent of Australians said they had seen the film (ninth highest globally) and the majority of these individuals (89%) said the film made them more aware of climate change problems. A staggering three in four of those who had seen the film (73%) said they were changing their habits as a result of seeing the film.
“An Inconvenient Truth has pushed Al Gore and the message of concern for climate change up the public agenda. This has been combined with UN scientific reports and the Stern Review as well as increased media coverage over the last months to shift the focus for many people from whether there is a problem to what to do about it,” said Max Boykoff, James Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford.
“Live Earth - the 24-hour, seven-continent concert series taking place on 7 July – represents an opportunity for a broader group of people to hear about the issue of climate change, and this study was a chance to identify who might be an effective messenger. The challenge that remains is to determine which messages move people from concern to positive action,” said Timmons Roberts, James Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford.
Looking at results from around the world, not surprisingly, nearly half of South Africans chose Nelson Mandela as their top choice to champion the cause of global warming, while twenty-eight percent of Austrians chose fellow countryman-turned-Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has championed climate change legislation.
In the UK, twenty-three percent of consumers voted British entrepreneur and environmental campaigner Richard Branson as their number one choice, followed by Bob Geldof. Twenty-three percent of South Africans also voted Richard Branson as their top choice, according to the Nielsen Internet Survey.
In Asia Pacific, Kofi Annan was clearly consumers’ leading choice with 21 percent of the votes, followed by others headed by Al Gore and Bill Clinton. Al Gore was the number one choice in Europe (19%) and also North America (29%), where Oprah Winfrey was also a popular choice (28%), according to the Nielsen Internet Survey.
In the Middle East/Africa, actress and roving UNICEF ambassador Angelina Jolie was the number one choice (17%), slightly ahead of Kofi Annan. In Latin America, rock star Bono won 28% of consumers’ votes followed by Angelina Jolie (22%).
Twelve percent (one in eight) of global online consumers polled at the end of April this year said they had seen Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. More North Americans (17% - one in six consumers) watched this film than any other global region.
Sixty-six percent of viewers who claimed to have seen An Inconvenient Truth said the film had changed their mind about global warming and eighty-nine percent said watching the movie made them more aware of the problem. More importantly, three out of four (74%) viewers said they changed some of their habits as a result of seeing the film.
“When consumers are impacted enough to actually change some of their daily habits as a result of watching a film, it’s the surest sign that the message has gotten through,” said Starick.
47 Markets Covered: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, US and Vietnam. Margin of error - +/- 4% for n=500 and +/- 3% for n=1000.
Click here to download the global report
Chart 1: Top two preferred champions for global warming – globally and in live earth countries
Chart 2: Impact of An Inconvenient Truth on viewers’ attitudes
About The Nielsen Company
The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research). The privately held company has more than 42,000 employees and is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com or www.eci.ox.ac.uk
About Environmental Change Institute:
Environmental Change Institute (ECI) plays a leading role in the UK Government's three main climate research initiatives. ECI hosts the internationally-acclaimed UK Climate Impacts Programme; is a core partner in the national Tyndall Centre for Climate Change; and a lead player in the UK Energy Research Centre. It runs a world-class Masters in Environmental Change & Management with students from all over the world. Oxford University has over 150 climate researchers covering all aspects of climate science, including hosting the world's largest climate computer modelling experiment across 150 countries [www.climateprediction.net]
Additional Contacts
Dr Max Boykoff: James Martin Research Fellow, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University.
Office tel. +44 (0) 1865 285 531; Mobile +44 (0) 780 430 166; maxwell.boykoff@eci.ox.ac.uk
Professor Timmons Roberts; James Martin Visiting Professor, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University, and Professor of Sociology, College of William and Mary, USA. Mobile 07726-285-535; jtrobe@wm.edu
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