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Some people might be surprised to learn that climate change is perceived as a larger threat to the vital interests of Canadians for the next decade than terrorism, according to a new poll from Innovative Research Group.

Between December 22 and January 4, the survey was conducted for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, where Canadians were asked about their "threat perceptions" on issues. From 2004-2010 the threat of terrorism dropped from 49% to 28%, while climate change dropped from 52% to 49%.

While the perception of danger from terrorism may have diminished, it's significant to note that despite the past six years of relative hysteria about the threat of climate change, that it actually dropped 3% over the past six years. You'll note that news articles are referring to this as a "relatively stable" number, but I don't think it's taking into account some of the significant changes in the past three months alone.
What's even more striking is that the media have been uniformly presenting the same talking point, that support for climate change as being a threat has been "relatively stable" over the past six years. What I think is even more significant than a 3% change, is that now less than half of Canadians believe that climate change is a threat, and that even though it's barely above the threshold for the statistical margin of error, it's still a decline. A more legitimate headline, then, might be: "Threat Perception of Climate Change in Canada Drops."

This poll coincides with a number of "inconvenient" recent events which has shed some uncomfortable lights on "anthropogenic" climate change [or the science formerly known as "global warming"]. First there was the hacked, or leaked, emails showing evidence of scientific tampering from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. And now, two years removed from a decrease in polar ice in the Arctic, the ice caps are busy making their comeback tour in 2010.

Indeed, British newspapers are now warning that the planet is headed into a period of global cooling:

The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.

Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013.

According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.

The same people who were convinced global warming was a threat because of a few hot summers, now see a cooling trend thanks to the coldest December in 115 years recorded in the contiguous United States and the harshest British weather in memory.

Speaking of threat perceptions, how many Americans are now terrified that Texas will be turned into an igloo?

National Post

Adrian MacNair is a vancouver-based blogger and writer. Read more here.

Photo: A frigid winter raised hopes in Scotland that an outdoor curling competition could be held on the Lake of Menteith, Stirlingshire for the first time in 30 years. The lake requires a minimum of seven inches of ice for the challenge to go ahead. This week, hopeful curlers were already out practising. (Derek Blair/AFP/Getty Images)