Thursday, February 19, 2009
Concern for the environment is on the downslide.
The Pew Research Center surveyed more than 1,500 Americans and asked them to name their top priorities for 2009. The economy and jobs were the top two priorities, while environmental concern ranked 16 out of the top 20 priorities, falling 15 percentage points from the same survey conducted last year. The environment experienced the biggest drop of any concern on the list.
J. Christopher Brown, director of the environmental studies program, said he didn’t think environmentalism was any lower at the University. He said since he came to the University in 2001, he had not seen a more environmentally-conscious campus than he saw now.
“Environmental groups are as active as ever,” Brown said.
Brown also said the environmental studies class he taught last semester was filled to capacity.
“That shows me that people are hungry for these discussions,” Brown said. “From my perspective as a professor, there’s a lot of interest in the environment.”
Michael Harry, IT Consultant to the office of the University Registrar, said there were 199 students currently enrolled with environmental studies BS, BGS and BA degrees. This number has increased about 33 percent from the spring 2008 semester, when there were 133 environmental studies majors.
Courtney Brennaman, Kansas City, Kan., senior majoring in environmental studies, said that although many people thought buying greener food products from stores such as the Merc was expensive, she disagreed that students must buy specific products in order to be environmentally friendly.
“The less you buy, the greener you are,” Brennaman said. “In a way, the economy has made me more earth-friendly because I won’t buy excessively packaged products for convenience anymore.”
Heather Putnam, Los Angeles graduate research assistant, said the survey results sounded too simplistic to her, and questioned the method with which the Pew Research Center survey was conducted.
“I’m convinced that the relationship with people and the environment is more complicated than that,” Putnam said.
Putnam said economic struggles could bring about different responses from different people.
“In a place like Lawrence where people are tightening their belts, you have two different reactions to that,” Putnam said. “Some people will install solar panels to try to lessen their energy consumption in the long run, and some will stop driving their cars, and won’t take their recycling in to Wal-Mart anymore.”
Putnam also questioned the way in which questions were phrased in the survey.
“When you’re asked to rank something, you don’t think about it in ways like ‘I’m three times less concerned with the environment than the war’,” Putnam said. “It all really depends on what’s going on in your life.”
— — Edited by Chris Horn
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