A new Gallup poll shows that the majority of Icelanders are worried about the effects of climate change, and that concern is growing, Fréttablaðið reports.
The poll asked respondents if they were worried about the effects climate change could have on them or their families. 66.9% said they were worried, 11.6% said they were not, and 21.5% said they had no opinion on the matter.
Icelanders are amongst the most highly consumptive people in Europe, and cars are very popular—data from 2017 shows that cars currently outnumber the population of the country as a whole.
“We do not at all need to use cars as much as we do,” Minister for the Environment Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson told reporters. “We’re just lazy, underneath it all. Although we are so few, we could very well be an example for others and that’s valuable in this world, where everything needs to change at once. No one is exempt.”
Guðmundur will be amongst the speakers at a Gallup conference being held in Harpa tomorrow, which will go over the details of this poll in greater depth, examining both the attitudes and behaviours of Icelanders when it comes to climate change.
Climate change will also be the focal point of the feature article of our next issue, which will include a conversation with Guðmundur, amongst others.
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