Between
hype
and
decline:
recent
trends
in
public
perception
of
climate
change
Beate
M.W.
Ratter
a,b
,
Katharina
H.I.
Philipp
a,
*
,
Hans
von
Storch
a,c
a
Institute
for
Coastal
Research,
Helmholtz-Zentrum
Geesthacht,
Max-Planck-Str.
1,
21205
Geesthacht,
Germany
b
Integrative
Geography,
University
of
Hamburg,
Bundesstraße
55,
20146
Hamburg,
Germany
c
Meteorological
Institute,
University
of
Hamburg,
Bundesstraße
55,
20146
Hamburg,
Germany
1.
Introduction
In
June
2010,
J.A.
Krosnick
published
an
editorial
in
the
New
York
Times
on
the
awareness
of
American
citizens
of
climate
change.
In
his
article
‘‘The
Climate
Majority’’,
Krosnick
contests
the
commonly
held
view
that
American
awareness
and
perception
of
climate
change
had
declined
in
recent
years.
Krosnick
argues
the
opposite
is
true,
with
the
vast
majority
still
believing
that
the
earth
has
been
gradually
warming,
and
suggests
the
fault
lies
with
pollsters
and
their
propensity
of
comparing
apples
and
oranges.
This
article
stimulated
considerable
debate.
Declining
awareness
of
climate
change
obviously
is
an
issue.
Krosnick
concedes
as
well
that
people
are
now
less
concerned
about
climate
change
(Stanford
University,
2010).
He
puts
this
down
to
the
recent
experience
of
cooler
weather
and
expects
the
trend
to
reverse
as
soon
as
temperatures
begin
to
rise
again
(Krosnick,
2010).
How
should
this
discussion
be
interpreted?
The
Institute
of
Coastal
Research
at
the
Helmholtz-
Zentrum
Geesthacht
in
Germany
is
engaged
in
a
long-term
study
of
awareness
of
climate
change
and
its
impacts
among
Hamburg
citizens.
From
2008
onwards,
a
representative
annual
telephone
survey
has
been
conducted
to
establish
how
residents
perceive
and
rate
the
threat
of
climate
change
to
their
city
and
to
their
personal
life.
In
this
contribution,
we
first
report
about
the
results
of
these
annual
surveys
among
citizens
in
Hamburg,
2008–2011
(Section
2),
and
then
screen
the
literature
if
similar
changes
are
found
in
other
countries
of
the
world
in
recent
years
(Section
3).
Obviously,
the
interpretation
of
the
recent
change
in
the
worldwide
attention,
in
Hamburg
and
elsewhere,
is
hampered
by
the
shortness
of
the
considered
time
window
of
a
few
years.
For
the
US,
longer
series
exist,
and
a
comparison
of
the
short
segments
with
these
20
years
records
suggests
that
the
recent
change
may
be
more
of
an
intermittent
downturn
during
a
series
of
attention
cycles
(Section
4)
(for
further
meta-comparison
of
US-survey
data
see
Nisbet
and
e
n
v
i
r
o
n
m
e
n
t
a
l
s
c
i
e
n
c
e
&
p
o
l
i
c
y
1
8
(
2
0
1
2
)
3
–
8
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
i
n
f
o
Published
on
line
8
February
2012
Keywords:
Risk
perception
Decline
Climate
change
Global
warming
Hamburg
survey
a
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
Several
surveys
around
the
world
claim
that
the
issue
of
climate
change
is
of
declining
interest
among
the
population.
Hamburg,
regularly
experiencing
storm
surges
and
suffered
a
major
flood
in
1962,
shows
evidence
of
this
tendency
in
yearly
surveys
undertaken
from
2008
to
2011.
Comparing
detected
trends
in
public
awareness
of
climate
change
around
the
western
world,
this
paper
concludes
that
there
is
a
decline
in
public
concern
about
climate
change
in
the
last
few
years.
A
few
surveys
in
the
US
reaching
back
to
the
1990s
indicate
that
this
decline
may
be
intermittent;
data
suggest
that
the
long-term
increase
in
scientific
confidence
and
in
media
coverage
is
not
transferred
in
a
parallel
long-term
increase
in
public
concern
about
climate
change.
#
2012
Elsevier
Ltd.
All
rights
reserved.
*
Corresponding
author
at:
Department
of
Human
Dimensions
in
Coastal
Areas,
Institute
for
Coastal
Research,
Helmholtz-Zentrum
Geesthacht,
Max-Planck-Str.
1,
21502
Geesthacht,
Germany.
Tel.:
+49
4252
87
1241,
fax:
+49
4152
87
2818.
E-mail
addresses:
ratter@geowiss.uni-hamburg.de
(Beate
M.W.
Ratter),
katharina.philipp@hzg.de
(Katharina
H.I.
Philipp),
hvstorch@web.de
(H.
von
Storch).
Available
online
at
www.sciencedirect.com
journal
homepage:
www.elsevier.com/locate/envsci
1462-9011/$
–
see
front
matter
#
2012
Elsevier
Ltd.
All
rights
reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2011.12.007