I've written a short piece reporting results from Gallup's 2010 Environment Poll that some of you may find of interest, and possibly useful for a classroom discussion dealing with Earth Day. It is available here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/127487/Environmental-Movement-Endures-Less-Consensus.aspx
This year's poll yielded several historically low figures regarding public support for environmental protection (and particularly concern about global warming), but I noticed an interesting pattern when it came to environmentalism per se. A couple of items assessing overall orientation toward the environmental movement showed a moderate decline in positive views since 2000 (when they were first used), albeit a far greater decline among Republicans than among Democrats. However, eight items measuring self-reported environmental behaviors were surprisingly stable over the past decade. Despite the obvious limitations of self-reported behavior, these results may indicate that while the organized movement is meeting increasing opposition (as is obvious from the constant attacks from the Right) environmentalism may be faring somewhat better at the individual level. Answering this will take more data and deeper analyses, but perhaps some of you will find these results of interest on the 40th birthday of Earth Day. Riley E. Dunlap Regents Professor Department of Sociology Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK 74078 405-744-6108 -- Subscription settings: http://groups.google.com/group/gep-ed/subscribe?hl=en
