Demonstrators for the climate in the procession of May 1st in Grenoble.

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XAVIER VILA / SIPA

According to a study published this Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, climate change and the risk of spreading infectious diseases are considered the biggest global threats by the people of fourteen advanced countries. 

In 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018, in previous surveys, respondents believed that the main threats were climate change and terrorism - in the form of the Islamic State (IS) or Islamic extremist groups in general -.

Cyber ​​attacks top the rankings in Denmark and Australia 

This independent American think tank, based in Washington, this time interviewed from June 10 to August 3 some 14,276 adults living in the United States, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain , Sweden, United Kingdom, Australia and South Korea.

“In a year when the Covid-19 pandemic has dominated news headlines around the world, it is perhaps not surprising to discover that the majority of the 14 countries surveyed this summer (69%) consider the spread of infectious diseases as a major threat to their country ”, just behind the climate risk (70%), write the authors of this survey.

More surprisingly, on the other hand, the European countries included in this survey place climate change well before the risk of the spread of disease: at 83% for France, Italy and Spain.

The United States puts the risk of spreading disease first, at 78%.

Global economic conditions and cyber attacks were also cited as top threats.

In this latest edition, two countries, Denmark and Australia even place cyber attacks as the main threat to their country.

The economic situation, a source of anxiety 

Regarding the global economy, in recession due to the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns have "increased considerably in most countries since the last question asked in 2018", add the authors.

A majority of people (58%) describe the state of the world economy as a "major" threat.

In almost all of the countries where the question was asked in 2018, the share of people who feel threatened by the global economic situation has increased by at least 10 percentage points.

This change was most pronounced in the UK, where 65% now say the state of the global economy is a major threat, up from 41% who felt this way two years ago, or +24 percentage points .

Same trend in Japan (+22 points), which experienced its biggest drop ever recorded in gross domestic product, and in France (+21 points), where GDP contracted by 13.8% in the second quarter of 2020.

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  • Climate change

  • Coronavirus

  • Global warming

  • Planet

  • study

  • Terrorism