Why are Europeans more concerned about Global Warming than Americans?

Question

I just read about a recent poll that shows that only 47% of the Americans consider Global Warming a serious problem while 68% of the French and 70% of the Spanish people think it is.

What do you think the reason is for this difference?

Thank you all for very much interesting input so far!

For MissDeviance:
I'm not sure exactly of what "pollutions" you're talking about, but when it comes to emissions of carbondioxide PER PERSON, then USA is still No 1. According to my research emissions per person is about 20 ton/year in USA, Chinese (which you mentioned) only emits about 3.5 ton/year but they have 1/3 of the world population!
Sweden, where i live is below 7 ton per person a year.

Still, this issue is not about emissions or judging anyone but just a question to try to understand the difference.

Answer 1

I can't answer for other European countries, but I can tell you that in Britain, part of the answer is that all three major political parties are trying to out-do one another in responding to the economic threats of global warming.

I heard a radio debate on BBC Radio Four where members of parliament for Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives were talking about what each party would do about global warming. The LibDem MP noted that her party had been out in front of the other two in warning about the consequences of doing nothing. The Conservative MP countered by saying that although it was true that the LibDems had been the first to show concern, "if the voters return a Conservative government in the next elections, they will find that our policies for combatting global warming are so radical that the LibDems will have to put their shoes on to get anywhere near it."

The electorate moves politicians, but politicians move the electorate, too. If ever Republicans compete with Democrats to convince voters that they will be "more radical" in their plans to combat the economic threat of global warming, that might change some American attitudes.

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Additional note: An answerer below claims that methane would rise higher in the atmosphere than heavier gases, but he's clearly confusing the behavior of a pure gas in a balloon with the atmosphere constituted of mixed gases. Even if the atmosphere sorted itself into gas layers the way he imagines, the greenhouse effect of trapping radiant heat would still contribute to atmospheric warming.

I don't know if human activity is heating the atmosphere, but I do know that if you're going to may scientific arguments, it would help to know a little basic science.

Answer 2

Probably because they are polluting their environments a lot more than we do.

Do some research and you'll soon learn that America has a lot more emission regulations than the rest of the world. We are FAR AHEAD of them in terms of addressing the amount of pollution we create per capita.

The only difference is, we still have a lot more people creating pollution.

For example, lets say each American creates 1 ton of pollution, each Frenchman creates 5 tons of pollution, and each Spaniard creates 3 tons of pollution. So now compare 100 Americans to 15 Frenchmen and 30 Spaniards.

America: 100 tons, France: 75 tons, Spain: 90 tons.

Well CLEARLY the Americans are polluting more, RIGHT? And look at France, why, they are the most environmentally friendly of all, RIGHT? This is how you DECEIVE people by manipulating statistics.

And this is why things like the Kyoto Protocol are a joke. They grant countries like China and India a "free pass" (they are exempt) while penalizing America just for having a lot of people. Meanwhile, China is about to surpass America as generating the largest amount of pollution globally, because all their once-rural bicycles are being converted to new vehicles in their booming cities.

Yes, some European ideas should be done in America again (putting deposits on bottles, building higher energy efficiency into appliances and materials as a rule and not just a more expensive alternative, etc.). But all in all, Americans actually implemented a LOT of environmentally beneficial changes since the 70's. The rest of the world is just starting to catch up.

Answer 3

Europeans have been ahead on environmental issues for years. I know polices in Denmark more than other nations as my wife is from there and all her family still resides there my answer will be slated to my knowledge of there It is not just gas that is expensive the vehicles are expensive as well. Typically a 100 percent tax on top of the sale price. Shell drills in the North Sea so they have the product. The high prices are mostly tax Both the high taxes on gas and the taxes on cars goes toward road and mass transit. It is expensive to have two cars in a family. It was designed that way to discourage driving and encourage the use of mass transit. Mass transit is not a fad there it is built into the system. There are a large number of buses and trains to take you where you want. You can do quite well without a car in most European cities Europe has made some horrible choices with their environment in the past. Deforestation on a huge scale polluted rivers etc. They have learned from that past and have changed much of that over the last 60 years. Our society has championed individuality. The car has been and still is a symbol of this. We go where we want and when we want. As our population has grown our cities have been designed and or redesigned for the automobile. You can do without a car here but is often a challenge. A higher cost of fuel is hard on us americans as many of do not have a choice of a relaible public transportaion system

Answer 4

Per capita the US produces more carbon than any other country. The answer is sheer stupidity. Just look at all the so called questions posted under environment that aren't questions at all. Most of them are dictated negative opinions imposed on the readers of this forum by morons who have already made up their feeble little minds that global warming doesn't exist and they are trying their best to convince themselves and everyone else that they are right even though they are not by any means authorities on the subject. If everyone would take a good long look at their personal lives and realize that they are essentially a waste of space and detrimental to their own lives through the excesses of laziness, ignorance, and luxury; instead of polluting reality with their personal opinions and mentally masturbating whilst they convince themselves that everyone else is wrong. Then and only then by self education and personal honesty can we accomplish what needs to be done to secure the ecology.

Answer 5

If u understand nature a little u will not believe in Global warming. First is the big bad CO2, Mo one has looked into what plants have done for us. Another thing is CO2 is very heavy ,U can use a CO2 fire extinguisher to put out a fire because it is so heavy.
Then Methane is a very light gas and if the environmentalist measured it they must not done it right . If u Can find any it should be about 55 miles up ,but it is not there either.

Answer 6

I'm not so sure that Europeans are more concerned so much as they are more likely to accept government generated programs to address the concern. This speaks more to differences in political philosophy than to actual concern. The European political system has always been more directed to socialism and bureaucracy than the U.S. system. Thus, Europeans are more likely to look to the government for a solution, where as many Americans tend to consider the government more as part of the problem.

Answer 7

The current US administration maintains a policy of downplaying the danger of global warming. They also are known for ridiculing scientists that are trying to raise awareness of the issue, and even ignoring lots of reports and recommendations from the EPA. This governmental stance is caused by the intense lobbying done on behalf of the automotive, petroleum, chemical, and any other affected industries who stand to be slapped with more costs & regulations if the US government changes its stance. In other nations, the politics and industry influence is much less, so the attitude is much different, and consequently, the people are more aware of the issue.

In the US, your average American citizen tends to be so busy, they only have time to pay attention to issues the government tells them to worry about, like terrorism. That citizen ignores issues that don't immediately and obviously affect them, like global warming. These same citizens are usually very America-centric in thought, and don't think of themselves as an equal-to-everyone-else citizen of the world, as it were. They just don't have time to worry about global issues. Studies have shown that while most Americans can identify a picture of Osama bin Laden, a significant percentage can't find Idaho or Canada on a map. That pretty much says it all.

As for the government's role in this. Basically, politicians in Bush 2.0 administration are behaving like the tobacco executives did before the congressional hearing regarding the addictive nature of cigarettes: Deny, deny, deny - even though they know their stance to be false and ultimately detrimental, the daily crushing influence of corporate America is overwhelming, and opposing that force is too great a risk to their chances for reelection/reappointment. (read: job security).

Answer 8

It's not all Americans... it's US citizens.

United States citizens don't "believe in" any news that doesn't benefit them/us - even if there is clear evidence to support it. We are also raised to go by faith rather than by evidence. So we have faith that global warming isn't real and ignore the evidence that says otherwise.

I'm a US citizen and I love our country but we are a great big very naive country in very many ways.

Answer 9

Because Europeans probably have had it bombarded at them for longer!
Never mind the Americans, what about the Japanese? The Japanese gov will not make an effort, they have admitted as much!too many people and not enough money in the economy for it to work or some lame excuse!

Answer 10

I think (if I'm correct) that there is more acid rain in Europe than there is in the US. Also, Europe is better about informing people about global warming.