A global survey showed that among 28 countries, the Philippines has the highest percentage of people who believe that climate change will greatly affect human lives.
Released on Monday, the survey was conducted by YouGov, a British market research and data analytics company. It showed that 75 percent of Filipino respondents believe that climate change will leave “a great deal of impact” while 19 percent believe that it will bring “a fair amount of impact” on human beings.
The numbers are far higher than the U.S., where only 24 percent believe that climate change will leave a “great deal of impact” and 31 percent say it will have “a fair amount of impact.” Generally, Asian and Middle Eastern countries have greater expectations when it comes to the effects of climate change than Western nations, the survey showed.
The Philippines is beset by an average of 20 typhoons in a year, which may explain why most Filipinos believe that climate change is real and has far-reaching consequences. One of the worst typhoons that hit the country was 2013’s Haiyan, which killed at least 6,300 people. Despite the destruction left by these weather disturbances, the Philippine government no longer participates in international climate change conferences.
Read: PH human rights commission urges gov’t to continue to participate in climate change efforts
The survey also showed that an overwhelming majority of Filipinos believe that climate change is already occurring and that humans have caused it.
Sixty-two percent said that humans are “mainly responsible” while 31 percent of Filipinos said that man is “partly responsible, together with other factors.” None of those surveyed in the Philippines said that climate change is not happening.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has the highest number of climate-change deniers at 6 percent, followed by Australia and Saudi Arabia (5 percent).
On the other hand, 63 percent of Filipinos believe mankind could avoid the effects of climate change if “drastic” measures are taken. However, 14 percent believe that it’s too late. Half of the Filipino respondents also said that the Philippines should be doing more to avoid its effects. At the same time, 85 percent of Filipinos said that international organizations — such as the United Nations — should be held responsible for the current state of climate change.
YouGov’s survey was conducted online from June 11 to July 22 and had a total of 30,000 respondents.
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