As of  August 16 they had received 7,764,300 responses to a survey measuring priorities–what was important to people and what they hoped their government, NGOs and multinational institutions would help achieve.

The top three were ‘better education’, ‘better healthcare’ and ‘better job opportunities.’

Last on the list was ‘action taken on climate change’. (Click on image to embiggen)

People care about the environment–ranking far higher than action on climate change were ‘access to clean water and sanitation’ and ‘protecting forests, rivers and oceans.’ But diverting resources away from other urgent needs to deal with climate change? Last.

You can say they are deniers, joining President Barack Obama in a category invented by Konsensus Kooks and intended to stifle conversation, not to mention debate.

You can say that they don’t know what they are talking about, although it would be hard to argue with the items they placed above climate change.

Or you could say that a problem that may threaten their grandchildren will not be salient to much of the world if parents don’t have children who survive to adulthood, or cannot find a job or have their ancestral forest bulldozed for palm trees used for biofuels.

Or you could say that an over-educated and over-worried elite with too much time on their hands and not enough in the way of real world problems to deal with are charging towards Climate Jerusalem to hammer away at what is most likely a modest problem with every weapon they have available, weapons that are more sorely needed to attack malnutrition, poverty and lack of access to clean water.

But as these ‘leaders’ race away into the Parisian sunset, one wonders if they will ever look behind them and notice that nobody is following.