Oh I’m sure people answer that way when asked in a survey, but we all know people typically vastly overestimate their knowledge of it.
And people don’t actually care. They may say they do because they’re expected to care, but they don’t vote for climate policies, they don’t go to protests, they don’t invest in companies that provide solutions to climate change, they don’t make minor lifestyle changes for the sake of mitigation.
Like from personal experience my sister would probably answer that survey to say she is knowledgeable and cares about it personally. But when I talk to her about how bad climate change already is, and how changes are going to compound on themselves and that current predictions say we will suffer massive crop failures by the 2040s that will result in global famines, she just brishes it off as being too serious and “they’ll do something before that happens” or trying to convince her to go 1 day a week without eating meat, or to properly recycle things, or take the train that stops 5 mjns walk from her house instead of driving, all completely fruitless, because just like 99% of the population, she just cares about her own convenience. And she’s not a bad person, by any means, she’s one of the more socially conscious people I know.
I think this over estimates how knowledgeable people are about climate change and over estimates how much people care.
Actually, not only are the vast majority of people aware of man made climate change, they also consider it personally important and a government priorty: https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/international-public-opinion-climate-change-2023-appendix.pdf
Oh I’m sure people answer that way when asked in a survey, but we all know people typically vastly overestimate their knowledge of it.
And people don’t actually care. They may say they do because they’re expected to care, but they don’t vote for climate policies, they don’t go to protests, they don’t invest in companies that provide solutions to climate change, they don’t make minor lifestyle changes for the sake of mitigation.
Like from personal experience my sister would probably answer that survey to say she is knowledgeable and cares about it personally. But when I talk to her about how bad climate change already is, and how changes are going to compound on themselves and that current predictions say we will suffer massive crop failures by the 2040s that will result in global famines, she just brishes it off as being too serious and “they’ll do something before that happens” or trying to convince her to go 1 day a week without eating meat, or to properly recycle things, or take the train that stops 5 mjns walk from her house instead of driving, all completely fruitless, because just like 99% of the population, she just cares about her own convenience. And she’s not a bad person, by any means, she’s one of the more socially conscious people I know.
Maybe, maybe not. I mean this isn’t an isolated survey:
https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/global-surveys-show-peoples-growing-concern-about-climate-change#one
There’s evidence that your political ideology can influence your willingness to adjust your lifestyle in response to climate change, certainly:
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/09/14/in-response-to-climate-change-citizens-in-advanced-economies-are-willing-to-alter-how-they-live-and-work/
However, with respect, anecdotal evidence doesn’t trump multiple world-wide surveys, even accounting for deliberate misinformation.
So, maybe they are all lying as you say, maybe they actually mean it. Lacking in evidence to the contrary, I’m going with the latter.