UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 23, Page 10
March 9, 1995
New book examines environmental attitudes

     Americans have strong and broad concerns about the environment,
frequently based on their own moral values, according to Willett
Kempton, a senior policy scientist of the Center for Energy and
Environmental Policy and an assistant professor in the College of
Urban Affairs and Public Policy.
     Kempton is co-author, with James Boster of the University of
California, Irvine, and Jennifer Hartley of Brown University, of
Environmental Values in American Culture, recently published by the
MIT Press. The six-year study was funded by the National Science
Foundation.
     Stewart L. Udall, former secretary of the interior and a well-
known environmentalist, hailed the book as an "important, original
work with insights about how ordinary Americans think about global
environmental problems and why they care about the environment."
     Environmental Values surveys the attitudes of a spectrum of
Americans about environmental issues, such as global climate change,
species extinction and pollution. Those surveyed included members of
the pro-active environmental groups Earth First! and the Sierra Club,
California dry cleaners who have been affected by clean air standards,
unemployed sawmill workers in Oregon and members of the general
public.
     "We were surprised to discover that these groups are not as far
apart as one might believe on the importance of protecting the
environment," Kempton said. "What we also discovered was that concerns
about the environment are interrelated with such values as parental
responsibility, obligations toward future generations and spiritual
beliefs. A total of 73 percent said they feel that 'it is wrong to
abuse the natural world because God created it,' and that number
included almost half the individuals who reject religion and say they
do not believe in God at all."
     In another example, 100 percent of the Earth First! members and
96 percent of the sawmill workers agreed with the statement, "We have
a moral duty to leave the Earth in as good or better shape than we
found it," and 94 percent of Earth First! and 100 percent of the
sawmill workers agreed that "People have a right to clean air and
clean water."
     People do change their behavior when they are convinced that it
is the right thing to do, the authors pointed out. For example,
Americans voluntarily switched from aerosol spray-can products because
they believed these contributed to ozone depletion.
     Although the vast majority of Americans are convinced of the
importance of protecting the environment, even when this involves
sacrifice, there are misconceptions about cause-and-effect
relationships and how these goals can be accomplished.
     For example, the statement "Reducing pollution is a more
effective way to prevent global climate change than energy
conservation," is incorrect, according to the authors. Yet in the
survey, 21 percent of Earth First!, 36 percent of the Sierra Club, 66
percent of the public, 59 percent of the dry cleaners and 67 percent
of the sawmill workers agreed with it.
     As stated in the book, energy efficiency is the best, or
"primary, strategy to reduce the use of fossil fuels and hence to
combat global warming" Yet, the interviews revealed that "perhaps the
most surprising policy-related finding [is]...the public's lack of
connection of global warming with energy. Burning fossil fuel is not
seen as a cause, and efficiency is not seen as a solution." Instead,
air pollution and ozone depletion are viewed as the culprits, Kempton
said.
     Kempton said that he is optimistic that people care about the
environment, but, at the same time, he's concerned that there is some
misinformation and lack of knowledge about the environmental issues
being debated today.
     One of the goals of the book is to let policy makers, scientists,
educators and others know how lay persons feel about and view the
environment. The book also shows discrepancies and gaps in awareness
and knowledge that need to be addressed, Kempton said.
     A graduate of the University of Virginia, Kempton earned his
doctorate from the University of Texas, Austin. He came to Delaware in
1992 from Princeton University, where he was a research
anthropologist. He also is the author of The Folk Classification of
Ceramics.
     Environmental Values in American Culture is available at the
University Bookstore.
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure