Protests in London to draw attention to the threat of climate change continue to cause disruption today, but are they having an impact on public opinion? Professor David Mond, from the Warwick Mathematics Institute and a researcher into environmental sustainability, argues that we are seeing a change in public perception.

Professor Mond said: "The public sympathy that has greeted the school strikes, and now Extinction Rebellion’s disruption, coupled with warnings from the Bank of England and the IMF that investments in fossil fuels may soon become worthless, suggest that we are in the middle of a major shift of opinion, and that at last we are waking up to the urgency of the situation.The increasing publicity for the scientific consensus of ecological disaster is part of this.

"It is not far-fetched to make comparisons between the urgent need for action today and in the run-up to WWII. The threat today is just as great, and, sadly, now as then, our principal ally, the US, is turning its back. Despite the UK’s small size, we could help to galvanise the rest of the world. There are risks to our economy, and we will have to make sacrifices, but they are worth it, because persuading the rest of the world that there is a crisis, and that preventative action is possible, is our only hope."

18 April 2019

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Peter Thorley
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