Chantelle Benjamin
27 August 2008
Johannesburg — SOUTH Africans are above the world average when it comes to concerns about climate change, according to a survey of 22 cities on six continents conducted by BBC World News.
The second study into the world's view on climate change conducted by the BBC with research company Synovate showed that South Africans are taking more ownership of factors causing climate change. One of the factors that may have increased awareness was the country's energy crisis, with 89% of South Africans saying they had reduced their power usage. Interestingly, 80% also said they had reduced water consumption.
The survey found that worldwide concern about climate change had increased from 68% last year to 72% this year , with South Africans scoring 82%.
Human factors were listed as the cause of global warming by 27% of those surveyed in SA, followed by pollution.
The biggest fear by all those surveyed was erratic weather conditions, as a consequence of global warming, and this concern was higher than last year. For SA, this concern was followed by flooding and drought.
Of those South Africans who thought there was one country most responsible for the climate changes on earth, 44% said it was the US . About 17% blamed SA, and 13% China. In the US, 74% of its citizens nominated their own country as most responsible for climate change. This was, however, a drop from 82% last year .
Jeremy Nye, head of Audience Insight at BBC World News, said the results reflected what its audience had been telling the news channel about levels of concern about global warming.
"In nearly all markets, citizens believe it's up to ordinary people to change their behaviour, the way in which global issues and personal behaviour is entwined explains the increased relevance of international news."
In SA, 44% of people felt government intervention was necessary, followed by 34% who said changes in behaviour of ordinary citizens, and 9% who believed new technology would help.
The biggest increase in concern was by US citizens, who moved from 57% last year to 80% this year.
There was also a worldwide increase in the number of people who had saved power (81%, against 76% last year ), recycled waste (70%, up from 65%), bought green products (69%, up from 65%) and bought energy-saving devices (59%, up from 53%).
As a result of the survey, BBC World News has commissioned a number of programmes to address viewer concerns.
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