DIRE predictions about melting ice caps and rising sea levels still strike fear in our hearts. But increasingly, people are ignoring the ominous warnings that are filling the media landscape in the run-up to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. Public support for environmental issues in key countries has taken a beating. Only one-third of Americans now think that humans are responsible for climate change. The number of Australians who deem global warming a “serious and pressing problem” has dropped sharply. And fewer than one-fifth of Britons believe climate change will have an impact on their children.