Not that I’m surprised, but a study by a University of Missouri professor reveals that, “the U.S. public prefers to act locally and nationally on environmental issues and that may be why appeals to global warming are not more successful.”
Well, of course, people will be more invested and familiar with the place where they live and spend the vast majority of their time. What happens there is sure to affect them while what happens around the world or even across the county line may not affect them at all, no matter how great the impact.
This kind of thinking is not necessarily going to affect the global changes that need to happen to radically reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, but from the practical point of view, the local is where there’s the most traction. It’s where the rubber meets the road.
“The survey’s core result is that people care about their communities and express the desire to see government action taken toward local and national issues,” said David Konisky, a policy research scholar with the Institute of Public Policy. “People are hesitant to support efforts concerning global issues even though they believe that environmental quality is poorer at the global level than at the local and national level. This is surprising given the media attention that global warming has recently received and reflects the division of opinion about the severity of climate change.”
Takers of the survey were not, however, all that concerned about climate change. Their three issues of greatest concern were local water quality, local pollution of rivers and lakes, and reducing local air pollution. I’d call these “classic” environmental concerns – the ones that first attracted the “think globally, act locally” activism in the Sixties. They remain important and shouldn’t be discounted. But it’s not a happy situation that global warming came in eighth place as a concern.
Political philosophy was also found to be a strong factor in how people responded to the survey. Given the advancing of climate change indicators, we may not have any choice as to whether government, at some point, must take stronger action.
“The survey reinforced the stark differences in people’s environmental attitudes, depending on their political leanings,” Konisky said. “Democrats and political liberals clearly express more desire for governmental action to address environmental problems. Republicans and ideological conservatives are much less enthusiastic about further government intervention.”
