Nearly nine in 10 people say they are ready to make changes to their standard of living if it would prevent future climate catastrophe, a survey on global threats has found.
The survey of over 8,000 people in eight countries – the United States, China, India, Britain, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Germany – found that 84 per cent of people now consider climate change a “global catastrophic risk”.
That puts worry about climate change only slightly behind fears about large-scale environmental damage and threat of politically motivated violence escalating into war, according to the Global Challenges Foundation, which commissioned the Global Catastrophic Risks 2017 report.
But it indicates that many now see climate change as a bigger threat than traditional or rising concerns such as epidemics, population growth, use of weapons of mass destruction and the rise of artificial intelligence threats.
The Global Challenges Foundation, created in 2012 by a Swedish risk specialist and philanthropist, looks for effective solutions to cross-border problems and ways to resolve the mismatch between long-term problems and short-term political and market focuses.
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Source: Reuters, 23 May 2017