A UN survey on attitudes about whether climate change is fact or fiction found 64 per cent of people in Arab countries say it is an emergency.
The UN Development Programme and the University of Oxford found people in Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia broadly accept what scientists say about the threat of climate change.
A UN-backed scientific panel has repeatedly stated that man-made climate change is sending temperatures soaring and causing more droughts, forest fires and other disasters, but many sceptics still question the science.
This image was acquired by NASA's Terra satellite on May 2, 2000 over the North Patagonia Ice Sheet in Chile, South America. The image dramatically shows a single large glacier, covered with crevasses. A semi-circular terminal moraine indicates that the glacier was once more extensive than at present. ASTER data are being acquired over hundreds of glaciers worldwide to measure their changes over time. Courtesy NASA
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View of the dry La Concepcion reservoir -which supplies 30% of the Honduran capital- in Tegucigalpa. The Honduran Service of Aqueducts and Sewage (SANAA) broadened water rationing due to a severe drought caused by climate change. AFP
A view of mountains which used to be snow covered, during a warm winter day in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India. Biologists believe that climate change is affecting living things worldwide, and the latest evidence suggests that warmer winters and long dry spells have decreased the water flow in rivers and streams, as there is no or less snow on the mountains. Getty Images
This image from NASA's Terra spacecraft shows a massive crack across the Pine Island Glacier, a major ice stream that drains the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Eventually, the crack will extend all the way across the glacier.
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A bird flies next to an ox walking on a smoldering field that was hit by a fire burning a tract of the Amazon forest as it is cleared by farmers, in Rio Pardo, Rondonia, Brazil. REUTERS
US actress Jane Fonda (C) participates in a march and demonstration before being arrested by US Capitol Police on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA. Jane Fonda has said she will participate with others in weekly demonstrations on Capitol Hill through January 2020 to call on lawmakers to address environmental issues such as climate change. EPA
Protesters gather outside the White House in Washington to protest President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the Unites States from the Paris climate change accord. For more than two years President Trump has talked about pulling the United States out of the landmark Paris climate agreement. Starting Monday, he can finally do something about it. But the withdrawal process will take a year and doesn’t become official until the day after the 2020 presidential election. AP Photo
Almost half of the survey respondents in Arab countries said they supported cleaner farming techniques, renewable energy, stronger conservation efforts on forests and land, and electric cars as ways out of the crisis.
The results reflect changing attitudes in the Arab region, which depends heavily on oil and gas exports, but where solar farms and clean transport feature in such developments as Neom in Saudi Arabia and Masdar City in the UAE.
Figures in Arab countries were comparable with those of other regions. In Europe and North America, 73 per cent of respondents said climate change was an emergency, whereas in sub-Saharan Africa that figure fell to 61 per cent.
“The results of the survey clearly illustrate that urgent climate action has broad support among people around the globe, across nationalities, age, gender and education level,” UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said.
The UN called its Peoples’ Climate Vote the “largest survey of public opinion on climate change ever conducted”, with 1.2 million people questioned about whether mankind was headed for a climate catastrophe.
Respondents were asked to take part via mobile gaming apps such as Words with Friends, Angry Birds and Temple Run, meaning results came from 50 countries and displayed a “unique, and random sample of people of all genders, ages and educational backgrounds”, the UN said.
Of those who said climate change was an emergency, 59 per cent said leaders should urgently do everything necessary in response. Another 20 per cent called for a slow response and 10 per cent said politicians were doing enough already.
