73% of people believe Earth approaching tipping points, according to an international survey

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 17

Across the world’s largest economies, 73 per cent of people believe Earth is approaching potentially abrupt or irreversible tipping points because of human action, according to a study following the recent ‘code red’ IPCC report

The results provide some of the most granular insights to date on these critical issues from the G20 countries, states the IPSOS Mori and the Global Commons Alliance that have released a set of new and extremely detailed research on public attitudes towards tipping points, planetary stewardship, and necessary economic and societal transformations.

The survey also found that the majority of people (58 per cent) living in G20 countries are very concerned or extremely concerned about the state of the global commons. And 83 per cent of people are willing to do more to become better “planetary stewards” and protect and regenerate the global commons.

Interestingly, people in developing economies showed greater willingness to do more to protect nature and climate than those in advanced economies, according to the study—Indonesia (95 per cent), South Africa (94 per cent), China (93 per cent), Mexico (93 per cent), Brazil (91 per cent), compared with Japan (61 per cent), Germany (70 per cent), and the United States (74 per cent).

“The world is not sleepwalking towards catastrophe. People know we are taking colossal risks, they want to do more and they want their governments to do more,” said Owen Gaffney, the lead author of the report ‘The Global Commons Survey: Attitudes to planetary stewardship and transformation among G20 countries, and director of communications for the Global Commons Alliance.

What the survey says

—73% of people in G20 countries believe Earth is approaching potentially abrupt or irreversible tipping points because of human action

—58% are extremely or very worried about the state of the global commons

—83% are willing to do more to become better “planetary stewards” and protect and regenerate the global commons

—People in developing economies showed greater willingness to do more to protect nature and climate than those in advanced economies

—73% agree their country’s economy should move beyond a singular focus on profit and economic growth and focus more on human wellbeing and ecological protection and regeneration

—69% of people believe the benefits of action to protect the global commons outweigh the costs

—59% acknowledge a very rapid energy transition is needed in the next decade

—Just 8% acknowledge the need for broader economic changes in the next decade

—71% agree the pandemic recovery is a unique moment to build societies more resilient to future shock