For 85 Percent of Brazilians, the Planet is Warming up

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A Datafolha survey released this Sunday, July 28th, shows that for 85 percent of Brazilians, the planet is warming up, and 72 percent of respondents believe human action contributes significantly to the phenomenon.

In a 2010 survey, the number of people who believed in global warming was slightly higher (90 percent) and more people accepted anthropogenic (human-made) warming — 85 percent.

According to the research, differences in methodology do not enable saying that there was effectively a reduction, but there were no signs of improvement.

The survey also found that the degree of acceptance of climate change is higher among people with more schooling. In the portion of those who attended higher education, 92 percent believe in global warming, compared to 76 percent of those who have elementary school.

Surprisingly, among those who think highly of Jair Bolsonaro’s government, 86 percent believe in global warming, compared to 81 percent who disapprove of him. However, Bolsonaro was the only one of the top five candidates in the 2018 presidential election to have rejected global warming and its human origin.

The survey also shows that the share of people who say they are well-informed on climate change is lower today than it was a decade ago. Overall, 89 percent have heard about global warming. Among these respondents, 28 percent say they are well informed, 43 percent say they are more or less informed, and 17 percent say they are poorly informed.

In 2010, 34 percent of Brazilians said they were well informed, and 11 percent were poorly informed.

The survey heard 2,086 people in 130 municipalities on July 4th and 5th. The margin of error is two percentage points, up or down, within a 95 percent confidence level.