Indians worried about environment; Chinese don’t care: survey

As world leaders prepare to meet in the Danish capital of Copenhagen to discuss climate change, a new global survey shows sharp differences among people in different countries about global warming.

Among other things, the 'global attitudes' survey by US-based Pew Research Center throws up an interesting between China and India, the world's two fastest growing economies.

Indians are clearly more concerned about the environment than the Chinese. The survey says that 67 per cent Indians are worried about global warming, as against 30 per cent in China.

A depressing finding of the survey, conducted from 18 May to 16 June, is that there is a lot less concern about climate change in the major polluters US, Russia and China than in other leading nations. China has recently overtaken the US as the world's biggest polluter.

Only 44 per cent of respondents in the US and Russia said they are concerned about climate change, compared to 90 per cent in Brazil, 68 per cent in France, 65 per cent in Japan, 61 per cent in Spain and 60 per cent in Germany. At 30 per cent, the Chinese are least concerned about climate change, says the survey.

Anxiety about global warming is also less pervasive among Israelis (48 per cent), Kenyans (48 per cent), Canadians (47 per cent) and Indonesians (44 per cent).

However, large majorities in every country believe that global warming is a serious problem, with majorities in 15 of the 25 countries saying it is "very serious." Also, majorities in 23 of 25 countries agree that protecting the environment should be given priority, even at the cost of slower economic growth and job losses.