World opinion is stable in believing that sustainability is an issue deeply ingrained in society.
Equally strong is the belief that national environmental protection is insufficient. The study, carried out by Germany s Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research and other national research agencies, canvassed the views of a total of 9,000 people in three industrial nations, Germany, the US and Japan, as well as Brazil and Poland. It found not only widespread support for environmental protection but also largely negative assessments of the condition of local environments. In Poland, where years of near-catastrophic environmental degradation have spawned an active environment lobby, the survey found a massive 87 percent of the population was interested or very interested in environmental protection issues, with clear majorities also in the other states. In each country, the environment ranked among the top six most important sociopolitical topics, but for 66 percent of Japanese it was the single most pressing subject.