Bill Clinton, most influential among global warming fighters

06 Jul '07

4 min read

The online Nielsen survey, the largest of its kind to be conducted globally on the topic of consumer attitudes to climate change, was conducted in April 2007 in conjunction with the Environmental Change Institute of Oxford University and polled 26,486 internet users across 47 countries in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

The survey also found that the film, An Inconvenient Truth, had had a significant influence on those that have seen it - in their awareness of the issues and their stated changes in habits and behaviours.

“An Inconvenient Truth has pushed Al Gore and the message of concern for climate change up the public agenda. Gore's persuasive argument is that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenge facing our global civilization,” said Panchal.

“Live Earth - the 24-hour, seven-continent concert series taking place on 7th July - represents an opportunity for a broader group of people to hear about the issue of climate change, and this study was a chance to identify who might be an effective messenger. The challenge that remains is to determine which messages move people from concern to positive action,” said Timmons Roberts, James Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Not surprisingly, nearly half of South Africans choose Nelson Mandela (49%) as their top choice to champion the cause of global warming, which also leads the top 10 countries where Nelson Mandela got the maximum votes, India is second on the list. In Asia Pacific, Kofi Annan was clearly consumers' leading choice with 21 percent of votes, followed by Al Gore and Bill Clinton.

7 percent of Indian consumers polled at the end of April this year said they had seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. 64 percent of viewers who claimed to have seen An Inconvenient Truth said the film had “changed their mind” about global warming and 82 percent said watching the movie made them more aware of the problem. More importantly, 61 percent viewers said that they changed some of their habits as a result of seeing the film.

“When consumers are impacted enough to actually change or claim to change their daily habits as a result of watching a film, it is definitely an indication that the message has cut through the clutter,” said Panchal.

ACNielsen

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