Gooseberry on the cost of climate change

It’s official, global warming is finally becoming enough of a pain in right rear pocket that most people don’t consider it worth the predicted personal sacrifice.

An international poll, conducted by a conglomeration of environmental groups and the financial institution HSBC, has determined the majority of people polled do not want to make any personal sacrifice to stem the tide of slightly warmer weather in subarctic regions of the world. The poll was conducted in 11 countries, including: the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Only 47 percent of people polled said they were prepared to make personal lifestyle changes to reduce carbon emissions, which is an 11 point drop from last year when 58 percent said they were prepared to make the switch to a cleaner but much more expensive lifestyle (I’m willing to bet very few of the 58 percent considered giving up their Ipods or cappuccino machines when they considered exactly what a lifestyle change would mean).

Of course, when asked, the majority, or 55 percent, still felt the government should do something like increase the cost of energy by investing in unreliable renewable energy resources such as wind, solar or wave power (Which makes sense when you realize most people polled believe little fairies magically create all of the government’s money in little solar powered factories where they eat only organic bean curds and meditate twice-daily to increase the world’s consciousness to the plight of the inability of gay seals and polar bears to get married because they are trapped in oppressive regimes in the Tibetan rainforests).

So what has caused such a dramatic change in just one year? Could it be more people are aware of the fact that glaciers are growing, we have more polar bears than ever, or that the same people who predicted the dramatic effects of climate change are same ones who said September 2008 was the warmest September in recorded history when in fact most of the US was reporting record cold? (They had actually goofed and mixed in August temperatures for a huge part of their sample, a mistake that apparently is not uncommon for NASA’s crack climate change team).

Nope. But give people leading marks for consistency. Just as the facts had little to do with the groundswell of support for climate change policies, they have also had little to do with the shift back toward less personal commitment. The real reason so many people aren’t interested in climate change is simple -- $4 a gallon gasoline.

Finally, the majority of the people have woken up to realize that the only way climate change policy will ever be implemented is on the backs of the consumer.