Abstract
Telephone surveys made of 800-1,000 randomly selected residents of the United States and New Jersey in 2003 show a sharp decline in support for antipollution regulations, although pollution remains a major concern. This drop in support is associated with slowing of the economy, fear of terrorism, and other competing priorities. The leading proponents of maintaining strong environmental regulations are relatively affluent mainstream white Americans. Despite this recent drop in support, overt attempts to weaken the basic regulations are likely to face stiff opposition unless there is an obvious economic downturn or increasing terrorism that causes a larger proportion of the public to feel that weakening environmental regulations will increase jobs and security. Key words: age, environmental laws and regulations, perception, polls, public support, race/ethnicity, trends.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (126.1 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Baxter R. H. Some public attitudes about health and the environment. Environ Health Perspect. 1990 Jun;86:261–269. doi: 10.1289/ehp.9086261. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sokolowska J., Tyszka T. Perception and acceptance of technological and environmental risks: why are poor countries less concerned? Risk Anal. 1995 Dec;15(6):733–743. doi: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1995.tb01345.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]