EDMONTON—A recent poll is casting the war on climate change in a new light. And while Alberta has been relatively quiet on the western front, that doesn’t necessarily mean oil country is opting out of the fight.

On Monday, Abacus Data released the results of a national opinion poll that surveyed 2,000 Canadian adults about their beliefs and attitudes on climate change.

Compared to five other topics, climate change was seen as an “extremely serious problem” by more than 82 per cent of participants, garnering more concern than income and wealth inequality, automation and the loss of jobs, and increased immigration to Canada.

While feelings on climate change were fairly consistent across demographic groups, the poll noted, responses from Alberta consistently stood apart from the rest of the country.

“I expected the Alberta results to be the lowest in the country, and they are,” said Seth Klein, adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s urban studies program who commissioned the poll. “But I actually found it interesting — the degree to which the results were, nevertheless, solid in Alberta.”

According to the poll, Albertans were the least worried about climate change, with 58 per cent anxious about it either all or some of the time. Respondents in Quebec, on the other hand, were the most anxious, at just under 80 per cent.

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Alberta also trailed behind other regions when it came to considering climate change an emergency (27 per cent), unlike the 60 per cent in Quebec who did see the situation that way.

Klein requested the research for an upcoming book on mobilizing Canada for a climate crisis, which he’s comparing to the country’s response to another existential threat from its past — the Second World War. And he sees the tables turning between those two provinces’ attitudes on what is arguably a national security crisis.

“Because of my research, I see everything through the lens of World War II now,” he said. “In that case, it was Quebec that didn’t support mobilization — the very province where wartime response in World War II was the lowest. The weakest response (for climate concern) was in Alberta, which arguably, was home to one of the strongest mobilization responses in the Second World War.”

One possibility explaining Albertans’ responses to the poll questions, he admitted, is that the province, which is fairly reliant on the extraction and export of fossil fuels, could be seeing climate action rather than the effects of global warming as a greater threat to their way of life.

“For some people, the shift that we have to make represents a major threat to their livelihood,” Klein said. “The one issue that ranks higher in the poll of greater concern than climate change was people’s anxiety about the cost of living and affordability.”

According to the poll, the rising cost of living was the only issue that loomed larger in Canadians’ minds, which 90 per cent regarded as a serious problem.

Having done some polling on the topic of climate concern himself, David Tindall, a sociology professor at the University of British Columbia, explained Alberta’s lag behind the rest of the country on climate concerns was owed to the fact that unlike some of the other regions it was compared to in the poll, the province is relatively homogenous.

“Albertans are surrounded by people who think the same thing that they do, and so they don’t receive as many challenging messages as they would in British Columbia or Quebec,” Tindall said. “And they’re surrounded by advertising that is advocating support for the oil and gas sector.

“The two provinces where the population tends to be most concerned about environmental issues and climate change issues are British Columbia and Quebec,” he added. “Alberta, typically, is the place where there is the least concern, because people are getting their income from the oil and gas sector.”

But that’s not to say Albertans will always think and feel that way.

When it came to respondents’ wishes for their children, 34 per cent of Albertans did not want to see their children working in the oil and gas industry (Quebec polled at 53 per cent).

“To me, that’s from sort of a nod to the fact that people see the writing on the wall,” Klein said. “A lot of them don’t see it as the future for their kids, because they know we have to transition.”

On the question of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, 46 per cent of Albertans thought it was possible for Canada to phase out fossil fuel extraction and exports in the next two to three decades.

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“Within the Canadian narrative, I think there’s this line now that everyone in Alberta is united in opposition to climate action,” Klein added. “My takeaway from this poll is that undersells the people of Alberta.

“It doesn’t do justice to the people of Alberta who, in fact — notwithstanding how reliant that economy currently is on the oil and gas sector — are actually prepared to wrestle with some hard truths.”

The online poll surveyed a random sample of 2,000 Canadian residents aged 18 and up between July 16 and July 19. According to Abacus Data, it has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.19 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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