More Japanese concerned about warming

TOKYO, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- More people in Japan now cite global warming as the top environmental issue than 10 years ago, a National Institute for Environmental Studies survey said.

Twenty-seven percent of 2006 survey respondents said they thought global warming was the most serious environmental problem, nearly seven times more than the 4 percent who identified it as their main concern in the institute's first poll in 1997, Mainichi Shimbun said.

Participants also were concerned about the destruction of nature, 7 percent, and water contamination, 6 percent.

The institute has conducted surveys on environmental matters periodically since 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol to reduce global warming was formed. Surveys also were conducted in 1997 and 2002.

In the latest survey, when people were asked to rank the effects of global warming, about 60 percent selected ozone layer destruction, which isn't directly related to global warming, the survey said. Another 39 percent selected rising temperatures' effects on health, while 35 percent chose rising ocean levels.