Guardian prophets six weeks ago: “Climate crisis affects how majority will vote in UK election – poll”

Polls are like climate models. You can get any answer you want, but not the one you need.

An immortal headline from Oct 30:

The Guardian declares: Climate crisis affects how majority will vote in UK election – poll

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And of course the greatest landslide in 30 years wasn’t won by the party aligned with teenage girls who promised better weather.

Six weeks before the UK election and the poll served no purpose other than to fool some politicians and the journalists that write about them. The biggest issue facing mankind either got solved before December 12, or perhaps no one gave a toss, they just said what the pollster wanted them to say.

Or how about the July 2019 poll:

Climate more pressing long-term issue than Brexit, say 71% of Britons

Bigger than Brexit? Jeremy ought to have that election wrapped up….

Christian Aid poll finds climate emergency should be a top priority for Boris Johnson

by Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian

Most Britons believe climate change is more important in the long term than Brexit and say it should be a top priority for Boris Johnson’s government, according to an opinion poll. Women and young people are more likely to say that action over climate change is a more pressing priority than issues around Brexit. The ComRes survey, commissioned by Christian Aid, found that 71% of the UK public agreed that climate change would be more important than the country’s departure from the EU in the long term. Six out of 10 adults said the government was not doing enough to prioritise the climate crisis….

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Neither Guardian journalist asked any hard questions — did people have the option to tick “Total waste of time”,or “Looks like Pagan witchcraft”.
Most surveys have 6 shades of believer and only one kind of skeptic. Without satirical skeptical options most people recognise the poll as a lecture, and just want the interviewer out the door. 30% of people in the US did say Climate change was a total hoax. Has anyone even asked?

Did the surveys ask people how much of their own money they wanted to spend or did they just do the usual apple pie wish list — would you mind if the government paid for nicer weather?

Which is, of course, why real leaders who want to win elections, don’t read The Guardian.

See posts on Polls here, where I’ve said:

Better survey’s show 80% of Australians don’t donate to environmental causes or vote for it. How committed are they? Answer, not even ten bucks a year. On flights, not even two bucks a trip. Survey after survey shows that when people rank issues, climate concerns are flat at the bottom of the barrel. Only 3% of US people think climate is most important issue.