Maltese perceptions on the environment.

This is a more suitable title for the articlu presented in the Sunday Times of 14 - 05- 2006. The title misleadingly states: Maltese barely care for the environment. Although I do not much doubt the heading, the study was based on perception, i.e. the sociologist Mario Vassallo asked: "What do you think the Maltese do/feel/care ...?", not "What do you do/feel/care...?"

Nonetheless, the findings are quite worrying, though not much suprising. In my opinion, I would follow this study with another one asking "What do you ...?" questions, to compare action with perception.

In my opinion, these are the saddest results of the survey:

• 64.7% say their fellow Mlatese care only a little for the environment;
• only 5.3% agree that they are very satisfied with the level of care of the environment demonstrated by fellow Maltese;
• only 16.7% think that the Maltese in general feel it is very important to economise on energy use; 56.3% think that they are somewhat concerned;
• only 21.3% would buy more expensive environmentally friendly products while 61.3% would go for the cheaper option;
• 41.9% of the 26-35 age group stated, without prompting, that public transport is very bad.

The survey highlights the difference in care for the environment between the different socio-economic groups. T he most sensitive people are those in the higher group level; the opposite is true for the least senstive people. In my opinion, this is directly linked to different levels of education, awareness and the "i don't care" syndrome which unfortunately many people suffer of.

True, I may be a little pessimistic, but if the picture is bad, there is no need to make it look good.
The facts are out there and up to a certain point, there is no need for hard scientific evidence. You just need to walk around, go to the beach, go to Valletta, go to Paceville, go to a construction site to simply notice the lack of respect which many people have to the environment. A real shame. And then we complain about asthma, littering, huge 'eys sore' landfills and a million other lack-of-environmental-concern-related impacts.

These are the conclusions of the survey, which I will leave to you to think about:
...it can be farily stated that care for the environment is not dormant in Malta, and among certain categories in society, it is quite strong. So are the measures that can be adopted to ensure that this care is tranlated in practice. But the understanding and implemention is not easy across Maltese society. In some respects a cultural change would be required to modify tradional habist and ways of doing things.
....many are not prepared to pay money to save energy or to discomfort themselves to facilitate wate disposal. Time and education can bring about the required change, but it seems that the process is bound to be both long and painful.