The report also pointed out “a strong connection” between seeing the U.S. as a threat and lacking confidence in Trump, particularly “among America’s traditional allies, such as Canada, the U.K., and Australia, where overall views of the U.S. and its president have plummeted in recent years.” A majority of those polled from Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Tunisia, South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia as well as nearly half from Canada, France, Germany, and Greece expressed concern over U.S. power in 2018.
As the global community frets about the United States flexing its geopolitical muscles under Trump—from ditching the Paris climate agreement and global treaties to backing an effort to overthrow the Venezuelan government—Pew also found that both Americans and people around the world perceive the human-caused climate crisis as a top security risk. In half of the 26 nations where the survey was conducted from May to August of 2018, the greatest number of respondents selected climate change as posing a major threat.
In the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Kenya, and South Africa, the number of people concerned about the climate crisis has soared, rising by double-digits over just five years. Across Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa—which are increasingly at risk for extreme weather exacerbated by rising temperatures—climate change has continuously ranked as a top concern.
Although the largest portion of Americans said they are worried about cyberattacks—aligned with the global trend of rising cybersecurity concerns—59 percent of U.S. respondents expressed alarm over human-caused climate change. While the majority of Americans in this poll and other recent surveys recognized the dangers of the global crisis, Pew found that “there are sharp ideological and partisan divides in Europe and North America” between those who are and are not concerned.
In nine of the 12 European and North American countries surveyed, those on the ideological left are more concerned about the threat of global climate change than those on the right. This is especially the case in the U.S., where nearly nine-in-ten (87 percent) among those on the left say global warming is a top concern, versus only 31 percent on the right who say this.