A survey in 25 countries found that only 42% of Israelis see the climate crisis as a serious threat – the lowest rate in the sample; terrorism (89%) and infectious diseases (55%) are higher in the order of priorities. In Turkey, this increased to 70% compared to 47% in 2013.
While many countries around the world are increasing their preparedness and response to climate change, it seems that we – in a hot, arid and particularly vulnerable country – prefer to suppress the danger. A large-scale international survey recently published presents a disturbing picture: Israelis do not perceive the climate crisis as a serious threat compared to other threats. It seems that even the Turks have overtaken us, and we are ranked at the bottom of the list of countries that participated. The obvious question is whether the warAre the political problems and polarization in Israeli society distracting us, preventing us from paying attention to one of the greatest and most significant threats to our future here – climate change, which is happening before our eyes?
Countries around the world are simultaneously facing a long list of burning and complex issues, ranging from a difficult economic situation to political, diplomatic, security and technological challenges. Threats such as the spread of false information on the Internet ("fake news"), the state of the global economy and terrorism are perceived today, About פי The survey החדש Published, as central and most urgent. In contrast, concerns about climate change and infectious diseases – issues that were until recently at the heart of the global public agenda – are fading from the discourse in most of the countries surveyed. The survey examined public perceptions of five key global threats: the spread of false information on social media, the state of the global economy, terrorism, climate change and the spread of infectious diseases.
According to the survey, which was conducted in 25 countries and included over 28 participants, a median of 67 percent of respondents see climate change as a serious threat to their country. In Israel, however, only 42 percent of the population holds this position – the lowest rate among all the countries surveyed (including countries such as Hungary, India and Nigeria). Moreover, the rate of Israelis who do not see climate change as a threat at all is the highest among the countries, at approximately 24 percent. These figures place Israel as an outlier in relation to the other countries surveyed, and raise questions about the priorities of Israeli society in the face of an increasingly worsening climate reality.
Turkey also stands out in the survey results. The proportion of residents who see climate change as a serious threat jumped from 47 percent in 2013 to 70 percent in 2025 – an impressive increase that places the majority of the Turkish public on the side that recognizes the seriousness of the problem. Nevertheless, in both Turkey and Israel, the climate crisis is not perceived as a top threat. In both Israel and Turkey, it ranks only fourth out of the five threats examined. Terrorism tops the list, followed by the spread of infectious diseases – an order of priorities that illustrates the impact of the security and health realities in the region on public opinion.
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