Economy is the worry of people and not environment issues
"One reason for the relatively low ranking of climate change is that people often believed it did not directly affect them. Climate change is seen more as a country-level problem than as a personal problem," said Tom W. Smith, director general of International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), which conducted the programme.
"While 14.6 percent cited it as the most important environmental issue for their country, only nine percent rated it first for themselves," said Smith, according to an ISSP statement.
Coordinated surveys, carried out by the ISSP, "are the first and only surveys that put long-term attitudes toward environmental issues in general and global climate change in particular in an international perspective," added Smith, who summarised the findings.
When
asked
to
rank
priority
worries,
people
were
five
times
more
likely
to
point
to
the
economy
over
the
environment.
Additionally,
when
asked
about
climate
change,
people
identified
the
issue
as
more
of
a
national
problem
than
a
personal
concern.
In the ISSP surveys, respondents were asked the relative importance of eight issues: health care, education, crime, the environment, immigration, the economy, terrorism and poverty.
ISSP
is
a
project
of
the
independent
research
organization
NORC
at
the
University
of
Chicago.
The
economy
ranked
highest
in
concern
in
15
countries,
followed
by
health
care
in
eight,
education
in
six,
poverty
in
two,
and
terrorism
and
crime
in
one
country
each.
Immigration and the environment did not make the top of the list in any country over the 17-year period; in the US, the economy ranked as the highest concern, while concern for the environment ranked sixth.
These findings were presented recently at the "Policy Workshop: Public Attitudes and Environmental Policy in Canada and Europe, Canada-European Transatlantic Dialogue," at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
IANS