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Survey: Swiss believe in man-made climate change but most do little to help combat it

The vast majority of people in Switzerland consider climate change a man-made phenomenon, yet only a minority say they are doing something concrete themselves to help combat it.

Published: 30 November 2017 09:52 CET
Survey: Swiss believe in man-made climate change but most do little to help combat it
Photo: The Local
According to a survey by the Link market research institute, reported by news agency ATS on Thursday, 85 percent believe that climate change is real. 
 
Of those, 72 percent think it is a man-made phenomenon, against 24 percent who think it’s a combination of man-made and natural factors.
 
Almost all said they felt the effects of climate change around them, such as the melting of Swiss glaciers, higher temperatures and extreme weather such as heatwaves, storms and natural catastrophes.
 
A majority of the 2,100 people questioned thought the issue should be tackled on an international, national and individual level, with 66 percent saying everyone should do something to help. 
 
 
However only a minority said they were actually doing something on a personal level. 
 
Some 33 percent said they used public transport to get about and 25 percent said they took the car less than before or not at all. Just over a quarter said they saved energy, 12 percent said they’d given up flying and 11 percent heated their homes less. 
 
Though concrete actions were in the minority, the willingness was there. Some 77 percent said they were prepared to give up air-conditioning and 75 percent said they would try to take fewer flights. 
 
 
This summer in Switzerland was one of the warmest on record and followed a dry, warmer than normal winter with little snow. 
 
In October Swiss experts said glaciers in the country had lost three percent of their volume over the past year, the third biggest loss in any one year since records began a century ago. 
 
 
 

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IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

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Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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