Sir

Your News story highlighting the different perceptions of climate change between US and German audiences of the environmental-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (Nature 431, 4; 200410.1038/431004a) raises some interesting issues, and resonates with the findings of our recent survey of UK film-goers. The prime minister, Tony Blair, reaffirmed his commitment in September to the United Kingdom taking the lead in combating climate change. Our findings indicate that there is a clear and urgent need for governments to provide support for individuals who wish to take action.

Our research (see http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/research/theme3/summary_t3_dat.shtml) shows that seeing the film did, at least in the short term, change people's perceptions. Viewers were significantly more concerned not only about climate change, but also about other environmental risks such as biodiversity loss and radioactive waste disposal. However, the portrayal of extreme events in the film also confused people: they believed extreme climate impacts were less likely, and would not be experienced within their lifetime, after seeing the film.

We found that many viewers of the film expressed a strong motivation to act on climate change — more so than before seeing the film. Less than 5% of the 301 people surveyed believed that there was no point in taking action. But despite being strongly motivated, people did not know what action to take. They require specific guidance on what to do to mitigate climate change, with positive images and examples to enable them to make appropriate changes to their everyday lives.

In his speech last month to the Prince of Wales's Business and the Environment Programme, Blair said: “To make serious headway towards smarter lifestyles, we need to start with clear and consistent policy and messages, championed both by government and by those outside government: telling people what they can do that would make a difference.”

We agree that the time is right to provide incentives to householders, perhaps through domestic transport and energy initiatives, to help translate public support for addressing climate change, as we have seen following The Day After Tomorrow, into concrete personal, individual and collective action.