Number Of Japanese Citing Global Warming As Biggest Environmental Problem Up 7X In 10 Years

[hatrack]

The percentage of people in Japan who think that global warming is the most serious environmental problem is almost seven times higher than a decade ago, a survey by the National Institute for Environmental Studies has shown.

Twenty-seven percent of respondents in the survey, conducted in 2006, said that global warming was the most serious problem, almost seven times more than in the institute's first poll in 1997. In the previous two surveys, "waste" was the top answer, selected by one in four people.

The national research institute has conducted surveys on environmental problems about once every four or five years since 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol to reduce global warming was formed. Previous surveys were conducted in 1997 and 2002.

In 1997, global warming was listed as the most serious problem by only 4 percent of respondents, but the figure rose to 10 percent in 2002. In the latest survey, it shot up to 27 percent, one point higher than for the problem of waste. The next most common answers were "destruction of nature" (7 percent), and water contamination (6 percent).

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http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070109p2a00m0na026000c.html