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Great Barrier Reef an icon that half of Australia never visits. Climate change scary as “litter”

Another survey that proves Australians still tick “yes” to motherhood statements. (Especially when there is no cost involved, and all choices are “Free”)

Survey shows Aussies’ love and concern for their Great Barrier Reef

A James Cook University researcher has found more than three quarters of Australians regard the Great Barrier Reef as part of their national identity and nearly 90 per cent believe it is under threat from climate change.

But what the media-release doesn’t say is that after 25 years of hearing how the climate apocalypse is coming, people think climate change is going to be slightly worse than beach litter.

In terms of extreme threats, 6% more people think Climate Change will be worse than flotsam and jetsam. As a multibillion dollar marketing campaign endorsed by the UN, WMO, IMF, and western media — that’s got to hurt. Climate change is not much more scary than litter, ships, or runaway fertilizer.

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Figure 3: Respondent perceptions of threats to the Great Barrier Reef as scored on a 10-point scale (1=not at all threatening and 10=extremely threatening). The “Top 2%” refers to the percentage of respondents who selected a 9/10 or 10/10. The “Top 5%” refers to the percentage of respondents who selected a score of 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10.

Australian government research at its best?

““We’ve described the personal concern and connection Australians have with the Great Barrier Reef “

Because no one has done that before, right.

How much do Australians care? Look right at the end of the press release:

– 44% of Australians have visited the Great Barrier Reef

So 56% of Australians have not. The PR team tries to reframe this statistic:

– Nearly half of the respondents (49%) had never been to the Great Barrier Reef but would like to at some stage.

Australians get their national identity from the Great Barrier Reef, but most people can’t be bothered to go see it, not even once in a life time. The message the researchers missed is that our national identity is probably based on something else entirely.

Press release

We sure hope there is something more substantial to  Goldberg’s PhD.

REFERENCES

Jeremy Goldberg, , Nadine Marshall, , Alastair Birtles, , Peter Case, Erin Bohensky , Matt Curnock , Margaret Gooch  Howard Parry-Husbands , Petina Pert , Renae Tobin , Christopher Villani  & Bernard Visperas (2016) Climate change, the Great Barrier Reef and the response of Australians  Palgrave Communications 2, Article number: 15046 (2016)   doi:10.1057/palcomms.2015.46

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