When Gallup asks Americans on an open-ended basis about top
problems facing the county, the economy is always at or near the
top of the list, while environmental concerns seldom break the top
five issues mentioned. For most people, economic conditions are
more top-of-mind than environmental concerns -- and therefore they
carry more political weight. "People vote their pocketbooks," the
saying goes, not "people vote their air quality."
But civic leaders, political strategists, and environmentalists
should take note of one Gallup Poll question in which the
environment consistently trumps the economy in the public's mind.
When presented with an explicit choice about which should
be given priority -- protecting the environment or economic growth
-- a majority of Americans select protecting the environment. With
a few recent exceptions, a clear majority of Americans have chosen
the environment over the economy on this question since Gallup
began asking it more than 20 years ago.
According to Gallup's March 2005 environment poll*, slightly
more than half of Americans (53%) say protecting the environment
should be given priority "even at the risk of curbing economic
growth," while a third (36%) prioritize economic growth "even if
the environment suffers to some extent." Eleven percent say both
should be given equal priority or have no opinion. These most
recent results represent a tilt back toward the environment from
the past two years, when less than half of Americans favored the
environment over the economy.
The existing data on this question suggest that preference for
the environment is stronger when the economy is good, which might
explain the dip below 50% in pro-environment responses in the past
few years and the high 70% pro-environment score in 2000. That has
not always been the case, though, as the recent resurgence of the
environmental movement in the early 1990s also found strong
pro-environment sentiment, at the same time the economy was in
recession (although the pro-environment responses declined
considerably in 1992).
Age and Politics Influence Environmental
Attitudes
The public's willingness to place environmental protection above
economic growth is far from universal -- there is significant
variance by age and political affiliation, for example. Republicans
and older Americans are less likely to prioritize the
environment.
Thirty-seven percent of Republicans say they favor environmental
protection over economic growth, while 51% would put economic
growth ahead of the environment. A majority of independents (59%)
place environmental protection first, while just 3 in 10 (31%) pick
growing the economy. Among Democrats, two-thirds (66%) choose
protecting the environment as the higher priority, while 24% choose
economic growth.
Older Americans are significantly less likely than younger
Americans to choose the environment as their top priority. A
majority of 18- to 29-year-olds (58%) and 30- to 49-year-olds (57%)
pick protecting the environment over economic growth. Among 50- to
64-year-olds, 48% prioritize protecting the environment. Just 44%
of Americans aged 65 and older place the environment ahead of the
economy.
Green by Region?
The West Coast (especially California) is often stereotyped as
the nation's hotbed of environmental activism. But when looking at
the results by geographic region, the Midwest actually has the
highest percentage of Americans who choose the environment (60%),
followed by the South (55%), the East (50%), and then the
West (45%). The 2004 environment poll showed similar results by
region. It could be that the regions with the most dependence on
farming are also most willing to prioritize environmental
protection over economic growth. After all, farmers were the first
environmentalists and agribusiness leaders know the value of land
and resource conservation.
*These results are based on telephone interviews
with a randomly selected national sample of 1,004 adults, aged 18
and older, conducted March 7-10, 2005, respectively. For results
based on these samples, one can say with 95% confidence that the
maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is
±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error,
question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys
can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion
polls.
