We prepared a questionnaire to learn about people’s knowledge and experience of issues relating to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The survey – which contained ten questions and was completed anonymously – was circulated round friends, social media contacts, and staff and research students of the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Strathclyde.
We received 85 responses from a range of ages and with people from different locations. Roughly 52% of the responses were from females and 46% from males.
The results are shown below…
- What town/city and country are you from?
There were a lot of different answers to this question, many from different places in the United Kingdom, particularly Scotland. There were also responses from Nigeria, India, Hong Kong, China and some European countries such as Switzerland and Finland.
| Country | Number of responses | Country | Number of responses |
| Scotland | 44 | The Netherlands | 1 |
| England | 10 | Sweden | 1 |
| Wales | 3 | Finland | 1 |
| Northern Ireland | 1 | Romania | 1 |
| Ireland | 1 | Pakistan | 1 |
| Nigeria | 4 | Iran | 1 |
| China | 3 | Singapore | 1 |
| India | 2 | Malaysia | 1 |
| Greece | 2 | Indonesia | 1 |
| Spain | 1 | Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| France | 1 | Hong Kong | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
- How old are you?
- What is your gender?
- Have you ever not had access to clean, running water?
- Have you ever been discriminated against because of: Gender, religion, culture, race, disability, none or other?
Of the 21 people that said they had been discriminated against because of their gender, 18 of them were female. (That is 85% of gender discrimination from these responses against females and 41% of all the female responses.)
- Do you believe climate change is real? Please give a reason for your answer.
One person out of 85 said they did not believe in climate change but they did not give a reason. The vast majority said they did believe in climate change and some of their reasons why are:
“Plenty of scientific data to support. More extreme weather patterns, melting ice caps, crop failures, animal behaviour changing e.g. migration etc.”
“Believe maybe the wrong word – it is fact”
“The feeling of excess heat in the environment as opposed to many years ago”
“Science says so”
“Obvious scientific/record evidence. Also observable phenomena like consistent differences in weather between now and when I was a child.”
“It’s so hot dude”
“Hotter summers, colder winters, the weather is more unpredictable at times, Australia bushfires, sea temperature increasing, ice caps and glaciers melting, rising sea levels etc”
Most of the reasons given for a yes response were to do with the volume of scientific evidence available to support it, changing weather patterns and rising temperatures.
A few people said they believed in climate change but thought maybe it has been exaggerated or that humans aren’t completely responsible. Some of their responses are:
“Maybe it’s true, but there are so many related benefits, so they may exaggerate that to a great extent”
“Yes but I don’t think I believe it to the same level of certainty other people do. Yes there is more CO2, yes maybe average temperatures are creeping up and maybe this will do a lot of harm. but the jump from more CO2 to the end of the world I think is a leap we are not certain of and is probably quite low probability.”
“However, not convinced it is fundamentally caused solely by human activity, accelerated yes.”
- What do you do in an attempt to reduce your carbon footprint? Recycling, walking/cycling, public transport, changed diet, reuse, none or other.
- Have you ever not had electricity at home?
- Have you ever had to go hungry to pay for other amenities? E.g. rent or bills
- Did you know chemistry can help to solve some of the problems discussed in the previous questions?
Chemistry and the UN Sustainable Development Goals 