The Public Supports Gambling, the Environment
February 1st, 2010Less Than 36 Percent Attend Church Every Week
The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson
In a continuation of our detailed look at public opinion in this state and country on issues such as religion, gambling and the environment, versus how those issues are covered by the media and portrayed by politicians, the Capitol Survey Research Center reports that 82 percent of respondents in Alabama favor legalizing and taxing gambling.
Among voters for the Democratic Party, the number is 84 percent, while 83 percent of Independents support the idea and even 82 percent of Republicans do.
Also according to the Capital Survey Research Center, only 31 to 35 percent of the public in Alabama tell pollsters they attend church once a week. The higher number is from counties in the northern part of the state and the lower number is from the coastal counties in the south.
Now compare those numbers to public support for pro-environmental policies.
Environmental activists have been painted as liberal extremists by conservative pundits and many were investigated as potential “terrorists” by the Bush administration. But according to detailed public opinion research collected over many years, the reality is something entirely different.
“As the ‘green’ movement continues to mature, those extreme portrayals are becoming largely outdated as mainstream culture comes to grips with the fact that environmental concerns are here to stay, and they must be addressed in ways that everyone can live with,” according to Gallup.
Public opinion research shows that 70 percent of Americans express attitudes showing broad support for pro-environmental public policies, and the numbers are not that much different on the state level in Alabama.
In fact, a couple of public opinion scholars I studied with at the University of Alabama in the early 1980s and the mid-1990s said support for a clean environment in the U.S. was as common as “mom and apple pie.”
Gallup asks the question: “Do you think of yourself as an active participant in the environmental movement, sympathetic toward the environmental movement but not active, neutral, or unsympathetic toward the environmental movement?”
About half of all Americans, 51 percent, put themselves in the “sympathetic” category, 24 percent classify themselves as “neutral” and only 5 percent say they are “unsympathetic” toward the environmental movement.
That leaves about one in five Americans, 19 percent, who say they are “active participants” in the environmental movement.
Looked at another way, if 19 percent are activist environmentalists, and 51 percent are sympathetic to the movement, that means 70 percent of Americans support pro-environment public policies.
That’s hardly outside the mainstream. So much for Rush Limbaugh and Karl Rove.
Also, according to Gallup, little difference is observed by subgroup when looking at those who say they are active participants.
For example, roughly the same percentages of men and women say they are active participants. The same holds for age groups from 18 to 64, and all education and income levels.
Even political ideology turns up little difference — 20 percent of liberals say they are active environmentalists, versus 18 percent of moderates and 19 percent of conservatives.
While the information is a bit dated now, the last comprehensive statewide public opinion survey on the environment I could find for Alabama is from the summer of 1999. But considering the stability of the data on a national level over time, chances are there are not significant differences today.
When the Capital Survey Research Center asked people in Alabama:
“Have you personally ever changed your behavior in some way to protect the environment such as not using certain items like plastics or recycling products like paper and glass?”
Eight out of 10 people, 81 percent, said “yes” and only 19 percent said “no.”
When asked if “protection of the environment should be given priority even if it makes it more difficult for some businesses and industries and cost some jobs,” 68 percent said yes, while only 23 percent said no.
When asked if they would “be willing to support limits on growth as a way of protecting the environment,” 68 percent said yes, 16 percent said no and 16 percent said they didn’t know.
When asked if they believed “government should be involved in environmental protection or should environmental protection be left to business, industry, private groups, and individuals,” 46 percent said government and industry should be involved, 41 percent said government should be involved, and 11 percent said government should not be involved.
When asked at that time if they believed government regulates too little, a majority, 52 percent, said yes, while only 15 percent said “too much” and 24 percent said the amount of regulation is “about right.”
When asked if they believed environmental protection and economic development can go together or that a choice must be made between them, 79 percent said they “can go together” while only 19 percent said a “choice must be made.”
When asked to respond to a series of statements that best described how they feel about the environment, 64 percent chose “I am concerned about the environment and I try to do things that protect the environment,” only 14 percent chose “I think the environment is fine and there are more important things than the environment such as industry and jobs,” and 20 percent said, “I do not know enough about the environment to know how real the issues are such as acid rain, the ozone layer, and the greenhouse effect.”
A full 92 percent of respondents in Alabama said there is “a need for more information and education about the environment,” and 82 percent said they believed “environmental education should be a required part of the K-12 course of study.”
To recap, more than 80 percent of the public in Alabama favors legalized gambling, 70 percent are favorable to pro-environment public policies, and only 33 percent say they go to church every week.
Now, the question is, do you think that break down is reflected in the press and broadcast media coverage of the issues in Alabama?
Or are people being presented a distorted view that going to church is the highest good, while gambling and protecting the environment are for bad people and liberals?
Watch the media coverage between now and June 1, when Alabama will go to the polls to vote in the Democratic and Republican primaries this year, and see if you think the media coverage and what politicians talk about are reflective of what we know about public attitudes in this state.
Related Coverage
The Public’s Concerned About the Environment: What about the press and politicians?
Why People Vote Against Their Own Interests
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Tags: Less Than 36 Percent Attend Church Every Week, the Environment, The Public Supports Gambling
February 1st, 2010 at 2:10 pm
There are even fundamentalist Christian leaders who are bigtime environmentalists now, based on the biblical injunction about stewardship.
Remaining is the question how best to protect the environment. “Rapacious corporations” get away with pollution now, in large part, because they are actually licensed to do so by the EPA under “administrative law.” The effect is to remove their actions, so long as within the limits of those regulations, from the operation of common law.
Coming up with a set of clear, tough and easy-to-understand laws on pollution, and returning enforcement to common law juries would be, in my opinion, a much better solution than administrative law handled by easy-to-corrupt-and-manipulate federal bureaucrats.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Do you find it odd that only 11 percent of people, even in conservative Alabama, favor no government regulation of the environment?
These results are counterintuitive to everything people seem to believe about the views and habits of the people of Alabama. But Democrats are afraid to be for the environment, and Republicans act like anyone who is for it is a lefty nutjob.
While more people say they attend church maybe once a month or on Easter Sunday once a year, it is doubtful they vote on that basis alone.
I wish we had better data on exactly why people say they vote for parties and candidates. Obviously, sex appeal or charisma is as important as the issues, at least to some voters.