Worrying report on climate change scepticism

The number of British people who are sceptical about climate change is rising, according to a poll for BBC News.

The Populus poll of 1,001 adults found 25% did not think global warming was happening, an increase of 10% since a similar poll was conducted in November. The percentage of respondents who said climate change was a reality had fallen from 83% in November to 75% this month. And only 26% of those asked believed climate change was happening and "now established as largely man-made".

The findings are based on interviews carried out on 3-4 February.

In November 2009, a similar poll by Populus - commissioned by the Times newspaper - showed that 41% agreed that climate change was happening and it was largely the result of human activities.

It seems to us that this may have been affected by continued efforts from the oil and coal industries to confuse people and create uncertainty, refuting scientific findings and discouraging investment into cleaner forms of energy. Plus, of course, there was the contrived plan to suggest that scientists had made up claims about climate change as part of the recent e-mail fiasco.