Recession eclipses planet's problems

Public concern about global warming appears to have eased in the past year, following economic uncertainty and widespread media coverage of climate science slip-ups.

An online survey of 1066 people in February and March found the majority believed climate change was an immediate problem - but the proportion of believers had fallen from 76 per cent in 2008 to 65 per cent this year.

Those who did not think climate change was a problem at all rose from 9 per cent to 17 per cent this year, while 16 per cent thought it was a "problem for the future", and 3 per cent did not know.

Concern about other environmental issues also appeared to wane: last year's drop in petrol prices was followed by a drop in the number of people who reported buying more fuel-efficient vehicles, from 27 per cent in 2008 to 16 per cent this year.

The proportion of people who were worried about maintaining a reliable water supply and keeping lakes and rivers clean fell by 5 per cent in 2008 to 65 per cent.

Peter Neilson of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, which paid for the survey, said it was not surprising environmental worries had taken a back seat as some people faced more immediate issues, such as keeping their jobs and living within their incomes.

He expected concern to pick up as the economy improved. "When you are comfortable about your job ... those things [environmental issues] go up the agenda," he said.

The vast majority of respondents said they were taking personal action to help the environment.

About the same number of people as in 2008 (65 to 90 per cent depending on the type of action) said they were recycling, cutting back water and power use, or choosing environmentally friendly household products.

And environmentally minded people became more active - with more people attending meetings or signing petitions (up from 3 per cent in 2008 to 14 per cent) or giving their time or money to an environment group (up from 3 per cent to 13 per cent).

The latest poll follows a Nielsen survey of the Herald Readers' Panel in December, which found one in five of 2296 respondents thought global warming was a giant con, and a further 28 per cent thought it had not been conclusively proved.

Almost all governments accept the findings of a UN report based on the work of hundreds of scientists which concluded in 2007 that warming of the climate was "unequivocal".

But public confidence was dented when, shortly before world climate talks in Copenhagen, emails were released showing a few leading scientists tried to avoid releasing data to their doubters, in breach of British freedom of information laws.

Then an error claiming that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 - an exaggeration of the thaw - led to calls for reforms of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

In an interview with the Herald, Britain's top scientist - prime ministerial science adviser Professor John Beddington - said that while the glacier claim was fundamentally silly, the IPCC was an impressive entity and he could not imagine it being replaced.

"Nevertheless, one needs to be thinking about how to improve the current procedures so you don't get these sort of errors, because in a sense they distract from the main message," he said.

The survey was carried out by ShapeNZ. Responses were weighted by age, gender, ethnicity, income and party vote to match the general population, and the margin of error was plus or minus 3 per cent.