While the effects of climate change are now undeniably visible, a new study finds that in more wealthy countries men are more likely than women to say they are not concerned about it.
The disastrous effects of climate change are plain to see: in recent weeks devastating wildfires have torn through large swathes of Europe and heatwaves have killed more than 1,000 people in Portugal and Spain. But attitudes towards climate change vary significantly. A recent study found that two factors can predict concern about the warming world: gdp and gender.
Sarah Bush and Amanda Clayton, two political scientists, drew on nine cross-national surveys and focus groups that together covered more than 100 countries between 2010 and 2021. First, they found that people surveyed in poorer countries rated climate change as a more serious problem than those in wealthier countries. They were also more likely to respond that they expect to be personally affected by a changing climate. That is hardly surprising. Poorer countries tend to be less prepared and thus more vulnerable to extreme weather, such as heatwaves and floods.
The more peculiar finding was how people’s gender correlated with their responses. Most people, of any gender, recognise that climate change is a threat. But in more wealthy countries men were more likely than women to answer that they were not concerned about it. Take America. In one survey by Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, 20% of men said that climate change is “not a problem”, while only 8% of women agreed. But as gdp per person decreases, the chasm between men and women narrows. In Britain, the world’s fifth-largest economy, 11% of men answered that they were not concerned about climate change compared with 4% of women. The gap narrowed further still in South Africa, to a difference of just two percentage points. In Uganda, one of the world’s poorest countries, the pattern narrowly reversed: 2.4% of the women surveyed said that they were not concerned about climate change, compared with only 1.7% of men.
You can read the full article here.
Source: The Economist