78% think that human activity impacts global warming – 12/17/2023 – Environment

In Brazil, the vast majority of the population understands the impact of humanity on the climate crisis. New Datafolha research, released this Sunday (17), shows that 78% of Brazilians say that human activities contribute to the warming of the planet, with more than half (54%) saying they believe that they greatly affect the climate.

A quarter of those interviewed (25%) think the impact is small and 5% were unable to answer. Only 17% stated that human actions do not contribute to rising temperatures in the world.

As the scientific consensus points out, current climate changes are caused by greenhouse gases emitted by human activities, mainly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. In 2021, an analysis of almost 90 thousand scientific articles showed that more than 99.9% of researchers in the world agree on this topic.

The Datafolha survey was carried out in person, with 2,004 people aged 16 or over in 135 municipalities across Brazil, on December 5th. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a confidence rate of 95%.

“This 78% figure is interesting because it reveals that Brazil is a country that knows that it suffers climate impacts. In other places, this is not the case. An example is the United States”, says the deputy director of Conectas Human Rights, Julia Neiva, who coordinates the NGO’s socio-environmental rights defense program.

“In recent years, research comparing the two countries has shown that Brazil has a much higher number of people who understand that climate change is happening and that it is caused and intensified by human actions.”

Understanding about the causes of the climate crisis is greater among younger people and those with greater formal education.

In the 16 to 24 age group, 85% say that human activities influence global warming, a number that drops to 70% among respondents aged 60 and over. The rate reaches 90% among those with higher education, but drops to 66% in the stratum with primary education.

Climate denialism —that is, the denial of scientific consensus on the topic— reaches 21% among people over 45 years old and 24% among those with primary education.

For the age group, the margin of error ranges from five to six percentage points, while in the age group, from three to five, plus or minus.

Neiva assesses that both aspects —education and age— are connected, as younger people had a more complete and updated school curriculum in environmental education.

“Today, environmental education is mandatory in the school curriculum, but it wasn’t always like this. So you can understand why older generations may be more resistant to believing this information, as this may not have been part of their initial training,” he says. .

“It is also not surprising that people with greater education have this understanding. As they had access to scientific and qualified information, they may be less susceptible to fake news and misinformation”, he adds, highlighting that the results demonstrate the relevance of closing the gap in access to formal education in the country.

For her, socio-environmental education is essential “so that we increasingly understand the connections between climate, access to justice, human rights and defense of territories”. “For example, one of the factors that most impacts climate change in Brazil is deforestation. So, we need to understand not only that it is necessary to defend the standing forest, but also the people of the forests, who work in this preservation”, she explains .

Extreme events

This year, which will be the hottest ever recorded in 125,000 years, according to the European observatory Copernicus, and in which diverse climate extremes were witnessed — from landslides in São Paulo and floods in Rio Grande do Sul to historic drought in the Amazon and fires in pantanal—, Datafolha also asked about the perception of this type of occurrence.

Among those interviewed, 64% said they believe that situations like these are happening more: for 46%, they occur more and more frequently and, for 18%, a little more frequently.

On the other hand, 25% think that the number of extreme weather events is decreasing: for 12%, they are occurring a little less and 13% say they believe they happen less and less frequently.

Another 9% say that the number of extreme events remains constant and 2% did not know how to give their opinion.

They were also asked how often this type of situation should happen in the future. For 79%, the number of events will increase, while for 6% it will remain the same and, for 12%, it will decrease. Two percent had no opinion.

According to forecasts from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the more the planet’s temperature increases, the more intense and frequent extreme weather events will be, such as droughts, heat waves, storms and hurricanes.