Today, The Gordon Foundation released the full report of "Rethinking the Top of the World: Arctic Public Opinion Survey, Vol. 2" at the Arctic Energy Summit in Fairbanks, Alaska.
The report details the findings of a 10,000 respondent strong public opinion survey from across the eight Arctic countries. It is a follow-up to the Foundation's 2011 report on public opinion in the Arctic, which allows for tracking of how public opinion has changed over the past five years.
The Munk-Gordon Arctic Security program seeks to understand public opinion on Arctic issues in the Canadian North, Canada as a whole, and all of Canada's circumpolar neighbours (Denmark [Greenland], Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and the United States). Since the program's first comprehensive survey, Rethinking the Top of the World: Arctic Security Public Opinion Survey, conducted in 2010 and released in 2011, the program has been guided by the belief that in order to influence public policy one needs three things:
- Proposed policy that is in alignment with the values of the people being governed;
- Capacity to carry it out;
- Support, not only among the decision-makers, but among those affected by these decisions, and the voting public.
In April 2015, on the occasion of Canada handing the Arctic Council chairmanship to the United States of America, the Munk-Gordon Arctic Security program conducted an expanded follow-up poll. Rethinking the Top of the World, Volume 2 is now available.
The full report is available online, click here.