Australians are more concerned about climate change that COVID-19

While the COVID-19 pandemic remains a major issue for many Australians, most of us are more concerned about the environment and climate change.

This is according our Life PatternsResearch published in the Climate Change and COVID-19 report, which tells us that Australians’ concern for the environment and the impacts of climate change has increased since our first Most Important IssuesReport, published in 2018.

Since the 1990s, Life Patterns has been following two groups of Australians through their adult lives from school to work.

CLIMATE CHANGE A MAJOR RISK

In 2020, we surveyed the two groups of participants about a range of topics including their views on the most important issues we’re facing in Australia.

Participants in Cohort 2 (now aged in their early 30s), were surveyed in 2020’s first half, while those in Cohort 1 (now in late 40s), were surveyed in 2020’s second half.

The data analysis shows that, despite the economic, social, and health consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic, people are more concerned about the environment, climate change, and the disruptions caused by it.

This is especially significant considering that most of the participants lived in Victoria. Long-term lockdowns during 2020.

Around 90 per cent of 755 participants nominated a minimum one most important topic, while close to 60 percent provided additional comments.

The social disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic loom large in Australians’ experience of 2020.

Participants were given the chance to express their concerns. 58% of them wrote detailed comments. Many linked COVID-19 to their concern about the environment and climate change.

A male Cohort 1 member who is a Development Officer living in a capital city said, “For example, this:

The COVID pandemic could dramatically change our lives in terms of health, lifestyle, increased state/federal debt, economic impact/uncertainty, and overall quality of life.

Cohort 2: A woman living in a capital said that she is a medical technonologist and works as a female cohort 2.

[In]The impact on the economy, health, and education of Australian children over the next six months to two year period will all be significant. We don’t know how much.

Others felt that the spectre a growing environmental crisis was more important than any other concerns.

A Cohort 1 female education specialist living in rural Australia stated:

Our warming dry climate is a major threat to bushfires and other human-caused disasters.

A Cohort 2 female lawyer who lives in a capital city was also noted:

What economy can it support (or rescue) if it is destroyed, flooded or melts?

Calls for collective action

The COVID-19 pandemic also has a place Long-standing economic, environmental, and generational problemsAustralian society is divided.

However, the two Australian cohorts preferred to discuss the need for collective action over the issues. Their responses indicated that they expected governments to do more to foster collective wellbeing in the future and now.

One Cohort 2 female doctor living in a capital said:

The healthcare system has been put on the back burner for ages… COVID has highlighted our lack of preparation for infectious epidemics/pandemics, despite yearly viral plagues (e.g., influenza) that kill many people.

A female Cohort 1 office manager from a rural town also needed to be involved in increased public investment.

To help our country get back on its feet, there will need to be ongoing services from both a financial and health/well-being perspective.

With the increase of climate extremesThe collective experience of recent years. Floods, droughts and bushfiresMany respondents felt an acute sense of the urgency of responding to climate change. It’s in this area that the action of governments was most severely judged by members of both cohorts.

Another Cohort 1 woman living in a capital and working in accountancy said:

One of the most pressing issues is climate change and its impact on the environment[s]Australia [yet]There is no real way to combat this.

Governments’ actions

Working-age Australians have a common expectation that they will be able to adopt better collective responses to climate change, COVID-19, and economic uncertainty.

These concerns are reinforced by the concerns expressed in the report of younger Australians about the environment, climate change, and the consequences of COVID-19. Mission Australia offers research.

These results highlight the intergenerational convergence in views about Australia’s major challenges.

Research like this gives us a snapshot of the real concerns of Australians who have already spent years adapting to a world affected by a global pandemic – and yet remain chiefly concerned about a future affected by climate change.

One woman in Cohort 2 who is a research scientist and lives in a capital said:

Australia’s inaction regarding climate change has made Australia a worldwide embarrassment. The current political climate is not conducive to a positive future.

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