Pollution now seen as major world problem

The world may still be facing the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are other problems that continue to plague us, which may emerge as a bigger emergency to the people of the planet.

One such problem is pollution, about which the United Nations recently conducted a worldwide survey, its biggest ever. The survey covered 50 countries with over half the world’s population. It asked 1.2 million people, of which over half a million were young people under 18 years of age, about a host of climate policies affecting the economy, energy, food and farms, nature, and protecting people.

Among the survey findings: • The most serious forebodings about the impact of climate change were in Britain, Italy, and Japan, where 80 percent of the people in the survey expressed fears about more destructive storms. Close behind them were France, Germany, South Africa, and Canada, where about 75 percent voiced these fears —followed by another group of countries, including the United States, Russia, Vietnam, and Brazil, with 66 percent.