Linking Science and Technology to Society's Environmental Goals (1996) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Attitudes Toward the Environment Twenty-Five Years After Earth Day
Attitudes Toward the Environment Twenty-Five Years After Earth Day
Pages 179-190
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 179... ...
1: Environment, August 22, 1995 is under the copyright of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. These remarks are a condensation of a monograph, Attitudes Toward the Environment: Twenty-Five Years After Earth Day, authored by Karlyn Bowman and Everett Carll Ladd and published by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, The AEI Press, Washington, D.C., 1995.
|
From page 180... ...
We continue to believe that the federal government has an important role in meeting environmental objectives. In 17 iterations of the question Cambridge Reports began to ask in 1976, pluralities or majorities have responded that we can combine material progress and a clean environment.
|
From page 181... ...
Another reason for the belief that we can encourage economic development and protect the environment may stem from the belief that government is doing a good job in this area. In 1994, 46 percent told Roper Starch Worldwide interviewers that protecting the environment was a definite responsibility of the federal government, and 37 percent called it highly desirable.
|
From page 182... ...
Roper Starch Worldwide asks Americans whether environmental pollution is a "very serious threat these days to citizens like yourself, a moderately serious threat, not much of a threat, or no threat at all." In May 1994, 47 percent called environmental pollution a very serious threat, 39 percent a moderately serious threat, 11 percent not much of a threat, and 2 percent none. A decade earlier, the percentages were roughly the same.
|
From page 183... ...
These kinds of questions weren't asked then. TRADE-OFFS Because Americans offer broad values and general conclusions about directions to be pursued, asking them about specific policy choices when people do not really think much about them can produce misleading information.
|
From page 184... ...
SPENDING When a value such as the importance of the environment occupies a substantial position in public thinking opinion researchers need to take care not to attribute specific conclusions to it mistakenly. Consider the familiar question about whether we are spending too little, too much or the right amount on the environment.
|
From page 185... ...
Roper has asked the public twice since 1989 whether the respondent or someone in the household makes a real effort to do a list of things about the environment on a regular basis, does these from time to time when it is convenient, or does not bother about it. Solid majorities said they did not really bother about doing volunteer work for local environmental groups, writing letters, not patronizing restaurants that put take-out food in Styrofoam containers, not cutting down on the use of their car by using public transportation, etc.
|
From page 186... ...
In the abstract, solid majorities favored laws to reduce pollution. The follow-up question asked Americans whether they would be willing to pay a lot or a moderate amount more for these products.
|
From page 187... ...
The question is set up this way: In 1972, Congress passed a law called the Endangered Species Act. This law requires the federal government to take whatever steps necessary to prevent any type of plant, animal, or insect species from becoming extinct, even at a cost to landowners, businesses, or the local economies where the species live.
|
From page 188... ...
Thirty five percent said it was very or fairly serious. Far more Americans thought that drugs, economic stagnation, the cost of housing, crime, the financial condition of local government, the cost of living -- the list goes on -- were very serious problems in their community than felt that way about pollution.
|
From page 189... ...
Unfortunately, the existing polling literature has not answered satisfactorily the question of whether the balance has shifted, even if subtly, such that groups saying, "We must protect the environment" find a more skeptical audience now than they did a decade ago. The issue is not whether Americans have soured on the environment or esteem a clean environment less as a central value.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.