Prague, Oct 21 (CTK) – More than a half of Czechs believe that the climate is changing globally and that human activities affect it, but they are not united about how to solve the problem, shows one of the first poll on Czechs’ approach to climate change released Wednesday.
Most Czechs connect climate change with a number of threads, but they tend to suppose that it will have an impact on the people living in another part of the planet.
Over a half of Czechs are of the view that species are dying out or will become extinct and that the number of floods and heat and drought waves will be rising, according to the poll that was presented by the environmental studies chair of Masaryk University in Brno.
Sociologists were collecting data from over 2000 respondents from late-May until the end of June.
Some of the polled also consider the refugee influx and the lack of drinking water ones of the climate change impacts. On the contrary, they do not perceive the terrorism rise and other phenomena connected with it so strongly.
Fifty-two percent of Czechs agreed that the climate was changing, while 29 percent disagreed with this opinion and 19 percent were undecided.
“It has turned out that Czechs realise a number of threats, but at the same time they are relatively uncertain. After all, the Czech debate was very complex in the past years and Czechs feel disorientated, compared to respondents in foreign polls,” said Jan Krajhanzl, head of the research team.
Public support for climate policy is evasive and disunited in the Czech Republic and Czechs lag behind inhabitants of other countries in monitoring foreign trends concerning climate change, he added.
Men prevail in the group of Czechs sceptical of the climate change theory.
Most Czechs are of the view that they alone can do only very little to influence climate change and that they can do nothing in their households.
“Over 60 percent of the public suppose that mainly industry, the European Union, the international community and the government are responsible for activities to prevent climate change,” sociologist Tomas Chabada said.
