A new poll commissioned by Carbon Brief investigates public opinion about climate change in the United Kingdom. Given the choice of three claims about the occurrence of climate change, 56% of respondents preferred "Climate change is happening and is mostly caused by humans," 37% preferred "Climate change is happening and is mostly caused by natural processes," and 7% preferred "Climate change is not happening."
Given the choice of three claims about the seriousness of climate change, 68% of respondents preferred "Climate change could be a serious problem and we need to act now to try to prevent it happening in the future, 16% preferred "Climate change could be a serious problem but we don't need to worry about it for now," and 16% preferred "Climate change will probably never be a serious problem."
The poll was conducted on-line for Carbon Brief by Opinium Research from July 30 to August 1, 2013; 2002 residents of the United Kingdom were surveyed, and the results were weighted to nationally representative criteria. Carbon Brief is a UK blog that reports on the latest developments in climate science and energy policy and produces briefings, analyses, and factchecks.