Residents of Russia have lost faith in the human impact on global warming.

The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) conducted a sample telephone survey of 1,600 residents of Russia to gather their opinions on global warming. Similar studies were carried out in 2007, 2008, and 2010, allowing for the tracking of the evolution of views.

The proportion of those who believe global warming is genuinely occurring is only 85%. Another 7% of the population are convinced that it is not happening, while 8% are uncertain. This is quite intriguing, as the respondents were over 18 years old, meaning they have personally experienced the significant warming of winters in Russia.

Only 37% of those surveyed attributed global warming to human activity; 44% blamed natural climate variability. This statistic is even more unusual than the previous one, as a Soviet climatologist demonstrated the anthropogenic nature of warming over half a century ago (before the warming was recorded by thermometers). In our time, the overwhelming majority of climatologists have long accepted this conclusion.

Moreover, the level of public awareness was higher in the past: in 2007, 59% believed warming was man-made, in 2008 — 57%, and in 2010 — 51%. There is a clear trend of decreasing knowledge on this issue.

In the government, the trend is the opposite. President Vladimir Putin, who seven years ago reported that he was unaware of the reasons for warming, changed his stance four years ago:

“The fact that the weather has gone crazy is related to global warming. Many reasonably believe that this is linked to human activity and CO2 emissions. <…> We must do everything we can to minimize our contribution to what is happening.”

At the same time, there are responses in the surveys that indicate an increase in Russians' awareness of climate realities. In 2007, 45% of the population believed (in 2008, even 50%) that warming would lead to catastrophic consequences for the entire planet; today, only 23% hold this view. Notably, there is a significant difference based on the gender of the respondents: 28% of women believe the planet faces catastrophic consequences, while only 18% of men think so.

There was no option among the responses stating “the situation on the planet will improve due to warming,” although this is precisely what a Soviet climatologist predicted when he forecasted its inevitability in 1971. However, de facto, a similar viewpoint, according to the survey, is becoming increasingly prevalent. Another 19% of citizens believe that the climate will improve as a result of warming, at least for some regions of the Earth. Among men, this figure is 24%, while among women, it is 16%. In previous years, this option did not garner more than 7-10%. Meanwhile, among Zoomers, 36% consider warming to be dangerous.

It is worth noting that as a result of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and global warming, we are currently witnessing a record biomass of plants on Earth, the highest in the last 50,000 years, and a record level of leaf area. Global greening reached its maximum level in 2020, which was the warmest year in the history of instrumental observations on Earth.

More than a quarter of every loaf of bread is supported by the increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and temperature-related mortality on Earth has dropped, as the decrease in cold-related deaths has significantly outpaced the increase in heat-related mortality. Specifically for Russia, all of this has manifested particularly strongly, as can be clearly seen in satellite images and monthly mortality statistics.