Concerns about the economy rank higher than worries about climate change across the world, shows a recent survey by the International Social Survey Programme.
A comparison of recent results with the same survey from 1993 showed little change noted on people’s concern for climate change.
Respondents were asked the relative importance of eight issues: health care, education, crime, the environment, immigration, the economy, terrorism, and poverty. The survey found that people were five times more likely to point to the economy over the environment.
“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,” stated Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey and author of the survey’s results.
Read more at The University of Chicago