New Poll Says Americans Worried About ISIS, Mexicans Worried About Climate Change Ari Phillips - ThinkProgress
go to original July 16, 2015

A major new Pew Research Center study this week found that Americans and Europeans are only moderately worried about climate change while those in more vulnerable regions — Latin America, Africa, and Asia — expressed much higher levels of concern.

The study, which surveyed 40 countries and over 45,000 respondents between late March and late May of this year, found that the people of Burkina Faso, a landlocked West African country of 17 million, are more concerned about global climate change than any other country surveyed, with 79 percent of them being very concerned. On the other hand, in the United States only 42 percent said the same thing about climate change, compared to 68 percent of people who responded that they were very concerned about the Islamic militant group ISIS. In fact, climate change came second to last for concern in the United States, 12 percent ahead of territorial disputes with China and one percent behind tensions with Russia.

While climate change was at the top of the charts in many regions — primarily Latin America (61 percent) and Africa (59 percent) — ISIS was the main concern in a number of developed countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Germany, the U.K., and Australia.

All in all, the study found that the majority of the populations in 19 countries believe that climate change is the top global threat, and regions especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change expressed the most concern. Those countries included South Africa, Pakistan, Chile, Mexico, and a number of other developing countries more vulnerable to drought, heat waves, sea level rise, and severe extreme weather.

Read the rest at ThinkProgress

Photo: flickr/Oxfam International

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