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  PlanetArk 4 Apr 07
Two-Thirds of World Worried by Warming, US Lags

 Today Online 4 Apr 07
S'poreans warm to climate change
Leong Wee Keat

AS temperatures around the world rise, Singaporeans, it seems, are also warming up to the issue of climate change.

They are just as concerned as the rest of the world about the extremes in weather, revealed a survey by market research firm Synovate and BBC World yesterday.

Some 67 per cent of the 502 Singaporeans polled said they were anxious about the effects of climate change, a figure similar to the global response.

Singaporeans were also getting involved in efforts to reduce the effects on climate change. About 86 per cent saved on electricity, while eight in 10 reduced their water consumption. More than half bought green products, energy efficient devices, reduced packaging and recycled their waste.

While one in five Singaporeans surveyed claimed not to know the cause of climate change, 21 per cent said that global warming was the main factor.

One in four had no idea of the consequences, while 24 per cent believed flooding to be the biggest danger.

Mr Dan Lai, director of alliances and operations at Climate Change Organisation, a non-governmental organisation, felt that Singapore was still "at an infant stage of educating the public about climate change". He told Today: "It will at least take one generation's paradigm shift to see some more significant effect."

PlanetArk 4 Apr 07
Two-Thirds of World Worried by Warming, US Lags

OSLO - More than two-thirds of the world's people are worried by global warming with Americans among the least anxious even though their nation is the top source of greenhouse gases, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday.

The survey, of more than 14,000 people in 21 nations for BBC World television, showed most respondents around the world reckoned the United States was more to blame that other nations for rising temperatures.

"More than two-thirds (68 percent) of the world is concerned about climate change with the South Africans (82 percent) and Brazilians (87 percent) most concerned," a statement of main findings said.

At the low end of anxiety were Americans on 57 percent and Indians with 59 percent.

Almost all scientists say temperatures are rising because of a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, threatening ever more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.

And the poll, by the Synovate research group, said two-thirds of all respondents reckoned the United States was more to blame than any other country for the problem.

"Almost four in five Americans, however, think that no one country is to blame," it said.

The United States is the top world emitter of greenhouse gases with almost a quarter of the total, ahead of China, Russia and India. In per capita terms, Americans are responsible for about 20 tonnes of greenhouse gases each per year, against a world average of below 4 tonnes.

Still, the survey found 22 percent of US citizens had bought or planned to buy a smaller car -- ahead of a world average of 20 percent.

US President George W. Bush pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, the main UN plan for curbing emissions of greenhouse gases, in 2001. He said Kyoto would cost US jobs and wrongly excluded developing nations from goals for 2012. He has instead focused on big investments in technology, such as hydrogen or biofuels.

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