FOR almost three decades, the British Social Attitudes Survey has measured growing acceptance of things like homosexuality and single motherhood. On December 7th it picked up a more worrying kind of nonchalance. Ardour for environmentalism is cooling.

The furore over whether climate change is real and man-made that has shaken American politics barely stirs a leaf in Britain. Yet the issue is quietly slipping from the popular consciousness. In early 2007, soon after Sir Nicholas Stern published a doom-laden report on climate change, 19% of people told Ipsos MORI, a pollster, that the environment was one of the most pressing issues facing the nation. Nowadays just 4% think so.