Asahi Glass Foundation 30th Annual Report on Environmental Problems and Human Survival

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Sustainability, Global Change, Society, Culture, Biodiversity, Wildlife, Nature

Ed Hessler

The Asahi Glass Foundation (AGF) has published the results of the 30th annual "Questionnaire on Environmental Problems and the Survival of Humankind."  It is not a scientific poll and the respondents are self-selected.  This year, due to deterioration of mail service likely due to the pandemic AGF also used academic websites and journals to contact people for the first time.

The respondents included environmental experts who work or who have worked for national or local governments, NGOs, NPOs, universities and research institutions, corporations, mass media, and so on, world wide (based on the Asahi Glass Foundation database. 31,806 questionnaires were mailed (30,241 to overseas respondents and 1,565 respondents in Japan). 1,893 were returned with a response rate of 6.0%.

The report includes a breakdown of respondents by region (9 regions) and organization (7 organizational types including not stated (5)). The survey was conducted April to June 2021.

The poll features an Environmental Doomsday Clock divided into four quarters: 12-3, Okay; 3-6, Concerned; 6-9, Worried; and 9-12, Fearful. The time for 2017 was 9:33; 2018 was 9:47; 2019 was 9:46; 2020 was 9:47, and for 2021 was 9:42. This is the first noticeable change in eight years. "looking at the times on the Clock around the world, the Clock receded back 30 minutes in North America and the times are also earlier than last year in most regions. The US rejoining the Paris Agreement in January may have positively affected the times on the Clock around the world." (italics my addition). 

The report contains details of categories to be taken into account by respondents in making their judgements on what time it is. In descending order the three most often selected were Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Society, Economy and Environment, Policies, Measures. Also included is the change in time on the Environmental Doomsday Clock by Generation Over the Last Ten Years (2012 - 2021). The three groups are 60 and over, 40ws50s, and 20s/30s. One finding among five listed: While all age groups had been developing a stronger sense of crisis each year, the Clock was set back in all age groups this year, for the first time in eight years."

In addition to a brief summary of the results of the Environmental Doomsday Clock, summaries are provided for Signs of Improvement and how well the 17 Sustainable Development Goals have been realized.

Starting in 2021 AGF created, as reference material, a table of significant environmental events that occurred about the world in the year immediately preceding he response period of the survey. You may find this table interesting

The report is 54 pages long and most of it is spent on regional details. There is a copy of the questionnaire as distributed to respondents and the results of changes in time on the Environmental Doomsday Clock from 1992 - 2021 for the regions the report considers and then for the entire world.

The report, including a separate link to the Environmental Doosmday Clock, may be seen here. This is the website for the AGF.