Survey: Climate change, financial instability top global worries
Washington - Climate change and financial instability are the top global worries of people who were questioned in a broad swath of countries, according to a survey released Monday.
In the survey, the Pew Research Center queried 37,653 people in 39 countries about their top concerns. The polling was done in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia/Pacific from March 2 to May 1.
Across the board, 54 per cent of people agreed that climate change was their biggest worry, followed by 52 per cent who felt threatened by financial instability.
But broken down by region, US participants (40 per cent) were less concerned about climate change than people in Asia/Pacific (56 per cent), where small islands currently face near extinction due to rising oceans, and in Latin America (65 per cent).
Europeans have been the chief motor in pushing for reductions in carbon emissions blamed for global warming, but only 54 per cent felt climate change was a major threat. That ranked second to the 63 per cent who felt financial instability was a major threat - a likely expression of the turmoil currently affecting the eurozone currency union.
Other threats people were asked about were: Islamic extremist groups (49 per cent); North Korea's nuclear programme (42 per cent); US power and influence and China's power and influence (27 per cent each); and political instability in Pakistan (22 per cent).//DPA
