At least 87 percent of adult Filipinos believe they had “personally experienced” the effects of climate change for the past three years, according to the latest survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The SWS study found 19 percent of respondents said they have experienced severe impact of climate change, 43 percent felt it at moderate level, 24 percent noted little effect, while 13 percent are not affected by climate change at all.
The research firm also reported that 88 percent of Filipinos believe that climate change poses a serious threat to their physical health, 47 percent find it very dangerous, 42 percent said it is somewhat dangerous, and only 12 percent said it is not that dangerous.
Respondents also said climate change is not good for their mental health: 81 percent said the impact is dangerous (37 percent very dangerous, 44 percent somewhat dangerous) and 19 percent said it is not dangerous (14 percent somewhat dangerous, 5 percent not dangerous at all).
Meanwhile, 93 percent of Filipinos felt at least one kind of emotion when climate change was discussed; 87 percent felt negative emotions and 37 percent felt positive emotions. The remaining 7 percent said they did not feel anything about it.
The top three negative emotions were sadness (56 percent), anxiety and fear (tied at 43 percent). These were followed by depression (16 percent), anger and hopelessness (tied at 11 percent), being responsible and guilt (tied at 4 percent).
Patience (22 percent) topped the list of positive emotions followed by hope and calmness (tied at 7 percent), happiness (6 percent), being irresponsible (2 percent), excitement and innocence (tied at 1 percent).
The fourth quarter 2023 SWS survey on climate change was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult respondents nationwide between Dec. 8 to 11 last year.
The sampling error margins are ±2.8 percent for national percentages and ±5.7 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.