Public Uncertainty over Environmental Issues

A major in depth study of public understanding of science and the environment has revealed that the majority of people are confused about the central issues. The results follow the Prime Minister's recent call for an open debate based on sound science. However the poll, conducted by the MORI Social Research Institute for the Scientific Alliance (an independent group of academics) also found a high level of trust for university scientists.

Public misunderstanding was found on a wide range of scientific issues concerning the environment. On climate change, 70% could not name CO2 as the main greenhouse gas, while only 4% named natural causes, by far the biggest producer of CO2. On GM foods, 42% thought they were harmful to human health, despite there being no conclusive evidence to support this. And on pollution, some 53% thought that British rivers were more polluted now than 100 years ago, notwithstanding the clear evidence that pollution is much lower today.

The survey found that trust in sources of information varied widely. Scientists working for Government or industry were most trusted by only 14% of the population, those of environment groups by 31%, while half (50%) trusted university scientists the most.

Despite widespread uncertainty and lack of trust in Government and industry scientists, most people showed willingness to pursue research on controversial issues such as GM crops. More than two thirds (69%) want research to continue, while 62% believed GM food could benefit human health and save lives.

More detailed findings also reveal that the public is more often concerned about other problems facing Britain today, such as health (named by 42% as one of the two or three most important problems facing Britain today) or education (named by 24%) than about the environment, which at 14% was considered as only the sixth most important issue. And although 78% of people claim to recycle regularly, just 5% of people stated that the lowest polluter would be a key priority in influencing their choice of travel when compared with price, convenience and speed. This shows that when it comes to the crunch, other factors are more important to the vast majority of people.

Technical details:

Britain. Interviews were conducted by telephone between 24-26 May 2002. Data was weighted to the known national population profile.