Antarctic values and Malaysia's involvement in Antarctica: perceptions among young citizens of Malaysia

Abstract

Lack of support and interest among the public is one of the major challenges in strengthening and sustaining the future national agendas on Antarctica. The main goal of this study is to identify the perception of Malaysia's public with regard to Antarctic values and Malaysian involvement in the region. A survey on Malaysia's young citizen perception on Antarctic has been conducted for mapping out the future landscape of Malaysian involvement in the Antarctic region. Surveys have been conducted on respondents from secondary schools and universities in Malaysia. A questionnaire was designed to seek respondents’ knowledge and awareness on the values of Antarctica and their opinions on Malaysia's involvement. The results of the study showed that respondents had a high level of awareness of Antarctic environmental issues. However, general knowledge about the Antarctic region was still intermediate. On the other hand, the results of this study showed that the young citizens had positive and strong support for strengthening Malaysia's Antarctic involvement. This study hopes to contribute as baseline data on the matter. Such background information will reflect on the national strategy in strengthening Malaysia's current policy and future involvement in Antarctica.

Perceptions of the Antarctic wilderness: views from emerging adults in Spain and the United States

“…In a random telephone survey of 600 members of the public in two Chilean cities, Salazar (2013) reported that large proportions of respondents supported Antarctica as ‘a global commons to be preserved for humanity’ and ‘a continent for scientific research.’ In New Zealand, respondents to an online survey indicated that Antarctica is one of the last pristine areas of the world that needs to be preserved, and also referred to its mitigating effect on global warming (Colmar Brunton 2011). In their study involving nearly 2000 secondary school and university students in Malaysia, Shabudin and others (2016) reported that more than 50% of respondents did not agree with mining in Antarctica, while 70% agreed with the statement ‘Antarctica is for science and peace’. However, in their study involving 1000 young Argentines, Del Acebo Ibáñez and Costa (2010) reported that only a minority of their respondents embraced a poetic or utopian vision of Antarctica.…”

“…Similarly, Salazar (2013) found that members of the public in Chile were not well informed on specific Antarctic issues. However, Shabudin and others (2016) found that many young people in Malaysia were interested to travel to Antarctica and supported Malaysia's involvement in Antarctic scientific research. In New Zealand, the majority of respondents to an online survey agreed that Antarctica was important to them.…”

Public support for Antarctic science: lessons from a national survey of Australians

“…Previous surveys are usefully collected into three overlapping groups: those focused on cohorts within specific nations, those focused on specific populations and those focused on specific aspects of the Antarctic region. The national cohorts surveyed include Chile (Salazar 2013, Estrada-Goic et al 2023), Argentina (del Acebo Ibáñez & Costa 2010, the USA (Hamilton 2008, Hamilton et al 2012, Tin et al 2018, the Netherlands (Tin et al 2011, Bastmeijer & Tin 2015), New Zealand (Colmar Brunton 2011, 2015, Malaysia (Shabudin et al 2016, Goh et al 2019 and Australia (Leane et al 2021). All of these nations are Antarctic Treaty signatories, with four of them (Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia) being territorial claimants and one (the USA) being a 'reserved claimant'.…”

“…Five of the surveys with a national cohort were randomized (Hamilton 2008, Hamilton et al 2012, Tranter 2020, Tranter et al 2022), while two (Colmar Brunton 2011, 2015 were drawn from a panel study weighted by age, gender and region. An overlapping subset included a focus on the corresponding nation's policies and/or activities in Antarctica (Colmar Bruton 2011, 2015, Salazar 2013, Shabudin et al 2016, Goh et al 2019, which aligns them with the focus of the present study.…”

We may not know much about the deep sea, but do we care about mining it?

“…No sign. interaction Significant interaction of the continent (Jarvis et al, 2018;Neufeld et al, 2014;Shabudin et al, 2016;Summerson & Bishop, 2011, 2012. Antarctica is now also more accessible than before, as evidenced by increasing tourism (IAATO, 2018).…”