A majority of people in Northern Ireland believe extreme weather events like the recent Storm Éowyn are at least partly caused by climate change. However, there is a significant difference when it comes to nationalist and unionist voters.
Just 29% of unionist voters believe this to be the case, while 81% of nationalist/republican supporters agree that climate change is partly responsible.
This is according to the latest LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph, which used a weighted representative sample of 1,050 people who responded to the survey.
It comes after Storm Éowyn brought winds of more than 90mph and caused severe disruption across Northern Ireland last month.
Stormont’s Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said its workers had to clear more than 2,300 obstructions on our roads, while around 285,000 households lost power.
Broadband services were also affected, with 600 Fibrus customers still without access, as of Sunday.
The LucidTalk survey asked people: “Do you think weather events like Storm Éowyn are at least partially caused by climate change?”
Some 60% of respondents said yes and 31% said no, while 9% reported having no opinion, weren’t sure or didn’t know.
Looking at the results by age group, those between 18 and 34 were most likely to agree that climate change is partly responsible for extreme weather, with 71% saying this is the case, compared to 47% of those aged 45 to 54, some 58% of those aged 35 and 44 and 59% of those aged 55 to 64. Some 60% of respondents aged over 65 agreed that climate change is partly to blame.
In terms of respondents by voting block, 81% of nationalist/republican voters answered yes to the question posed, while 12% said no and 7% said they didn’t know, weren’t sure or had no opinion.
Among unionist voters, 29% said climate change was partially responsible for extreme weather, 57% said it wasn’t and 14% said they didn’t know, weren’t sure or had no opinion.
Some 92% of respondents who classed themselves as non-assigned or constitutionally neutral supported the view regarding climate change, while 7% said they did not and just 1% said they didn’t know, weren’t sure or had no opinion.
For those undetermined or ‘unidentified’, the figures were 40%, 49% and 11%, respectively.
Storm Éowyn was the first time a red weather warning was put in place across both Northern Ireland and the Republic since the colour warning system was in place in both jurisdictions.
It resulted in schools being closed, flights cancelled and many businesses shutting their doors.
Two weeks ago, Stormont Finance Minister John O’Dowd announced that £17.4m was to be provided to the various departments to help them deal with the impact of the storm.
Almost half of this, some £8m, was allocated to DfI, while £4m went to the Department of Health and £3m went to the Department of Education.
A further £1.4m was allocated to the Department for Communities and £1m was provided to the Department of Justice.
“Given the unforeseen costs and exceptional challenges facing departments as they deal with the aftermath of the storm, the limited funding available had to be prioritised for this purpose,” Mr O’Dowd said upon the announcement.
“I appreciate the other financial pressures faced by departments and am committed to working together with my Executive colleagues to address the challenges ahead.”
by Sonaghan
15 comments
Unionism does seem to suffer more extensively from US-style right-wing brainrot – so perhaps it’s not that surprising views such as “climate change is a hoax” are widespread.
Amazing what a 1 degree difference can do
My in-laws are republicans and they also don’t believe in climate change and instead her da thinks it’s the planes spreading clouds. I don’t think it has much to do with political alignment and more with the general lack of education and people in this country being generally stuck up their own assholes and thinking they know better and are better than everyone else. I call it little leprechaun syndrome.
That’s an absolutely mental difference to be honest.
I wonder why unionists are so far out of kilter with the rest of the country in this regard.
What percentage believe the earth is 6000 years old and are waiting patiently for the world to end so they can be raptured directly to heaven? I would wager there is some correlation
TIL most unionists believe Sinn Féin control the weather
It’s the influence of american social media and american evangelism.
If you honestly believe this type of guff you are nothing more than a bigot. Your opinion on climate change has nothing to do your opinion on the six counties place in the Union.
It’s grim to say but the evidence is stacking up that unionists are just thick as fuck 🤷🏻
Shite rhetoric. Logos and pathos. Hot take. Whatever you want to call it, I doubt anyone who reads that paper, or works for it is a meteorologist or understands the principles of chaos theory.
Climate change yes but that’s natural climate change and not global warming. Geological evidence shows that hurricanes in the Atlantic have doubled in the last millennium. These storms aren’t anything new and have been happening for thousands upon thousands of years. The Earth warms up then cooks down in cycles and has done for hundreds of thousands of years. This is caused by variations in the earth’s orbit which determines the amount of solar radiation it receives. Man can’t affect the orbit of the earth.
Maybe some people misunderstood the question as some people may think they’re asking if it’s to do with global warming instead of climate change, which of course it’s not.
As I said the planet has heated up and cooked down for hundreds of thousands of years, so there’s nothing new here and it isn’t controlled by man.
>Some 92% of respondents who classed themselves as non-assigned or constitutionally neutral supported the view regarding climate change, while 7% said they did not and just 1% said they didn’t know, weren’t sure or had no opinion.
That is easily the most striking result from the poll IMO: tribalism indicates an inability to think logically.
I know a devout nationalist who is convinced there’s some conspiracy about the weather being manufactured.
Wonder what way the massive number of “wardens of the land” are falling into the denier category 🤔
Unionists have always tended to be socially conservative. A lot of it is church related but there’s an affinity with the American religious right as well. Pro-life, anti- LGBT, creationist, anti-vax, climate change denying. It’s very small minded stuff but then they do tend to live in a small bubble of their own making.
Comments are closed.