Sacrifice, the word has become a campaign killer in American politics and a foreign one in most of the developed world. However, the results of a recent BBC poll (1.4mb PDF) of more than 22,000 people in 21 countries are in and it turns out that despite what most politicians believe, the world is in fact ready to make some changes, sacrifices even, in order to save the planet. At least that is what they are reporting.
Four out of five people surveyed, including in China and the US, say that they believe that lifestyle changes are necessary to save the planet. Sadly, the US is also among the countries with the highest number of people, 19%, believing that changes are not necessary, keeping company with Nigerians (33%), Egyptians (29%), Kenyans (25%) and Indians (18%).
There is also agreement among half of those surveyed that raising oil and coal prices would be needed in order to curb their use. Not surprisingly, Russians were low on their support for this, as were Italians, possibly a result of already high energy prices in those countries according to the pollsters. But perhaps even more surprising and heartening, 85% of Chinese support higher energy taxes, the most support of any country surveyed. This is good news considering that China will soon surpass the US in terms of being the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases, as long as it reflects real sentiment and not just an unwillingness among Chinese to contradict official policy. Australia gives the highest support in the developed world for raising energy prices with 61% in favor. Worldwide support for energy taxes goes even higher, too, when that revenue is dedicated toward development of alternative energy sources. A further increase in support is seen when other taxes decrease concomitantly, such as Al Gore has suggested with replacing the income tax with a carbon tax.
* Note: on the chart above, the yellow bar indicates the percentage increase in support, not total support
With all of this good news about world opinion, and front runner Democratic Primary candidate Hillary Clinton releasing a bold energy plan this week, can we begin to hope that we will actually see some real changes? Knowing that so many people around the globe realize the urgency of climate change and are willing to do something about it is reason for optimism, indeed.
