Environmental Concerns rising in global Pew Survey except in Arab Region!

A 47-nation survey finds global public opinion increasingly wary of the world's dominant nations and disapproving of their leaders. Anti-Americanism is extensive, but also the growing global concern of environmental threats.

The Pew survey finds a general increase in the percentage of people citing pollution and environmental problems as a top global threat. Worries have risen sharply in Latin America and Europe, as well as in Japan and India. Many people blame the United States – and to a lesser extent China – for these problems and look to Washington to do something about them.

As was the case in Pew's first major global survey in 2002, global concerns vary significantly by region of the world. The spread of nuclear weapons is a growing worry in the Middle East – it is named as a top global danger in that region, along with religious and ethnic hatreds, but not environmental concerns.

In a comparison between 2002 and 2007 surveys, respondents from many countries stated an increase in their environmental concerns. Strangely enough, only respondents from the Middle East show little concern over environmental issues. Both Jordan and Lebanon showed a decrease in "environmental concerns" from 2002 to 2007 with Jordan decreasing from 37% to 30% while the decrease was more in Lebanon from 22% to 13%. However 40% of Egyptian respondent showed environmental concerns, 31% in Morocco, 28% in Palestine, 26% in Israel and only 22% in Kuwait.

Countries most concerned with environmental problems were South Korea (77%), Japan and China (70%), Sweden (66%), Ukraine (57%), Peru (55%), Canada (54%), Argentina (53%) and France 52%.