Climate Change, Act I: Huddle At The U.N.

This has been "Climate Week" at the United Nations, bringing world leaders, experts, advocates and celebrities together to help set the stage for negotiations later this year on a new treaty for greenhouse gas reduction. But with the deadline for the Copenhagen conference drawing near, are leaders and the public anywhere near each other in discussing this problem?

Kind of. But there's a long way to go.

One of the issues for the public is that energy is a "triple threat" problem. Climate change is certainly part of the challenge, but so are energy prices and energy security. Naturally enough during "climate week" there's been a lot of focus on public opinion about global warming, and in Public Agenda's Energy Learning Curve™ study, seven in 10 survey participants said that they worry about global warming at least "somewhat."

But even more were worried about price (89 percent) and that we're too dependent on oil (83 percent). Even more telling is the intensity of their concern. Some 57 percent worry "a lot" about prices and 47 percent worry a lot about oil dependence, but only 32 percent say they worry a lot about global warming. That's 25 points behind prices.

But there's good news for leaders on climate change, because while the public may be more worried about other things, they end up backing many of the same solutions. There's broad consensus that the country should pursue, especially alternative energy, conservation and incentives to become more efficient. There's a lot of support for solutions – it's just that the public's reasons may be different those of the climate activists.

For more on this subject, check out Facing The Challenges Of Climate Change: A Guide For Citizen Thought And Action and Climate Change: Is It Getting Hot In Here? in our Citizen's Survival Kit.