A group post by M. Fries, E. Gilmore, J. Riedal, C. Schenk
PROCEDURE
It should first be noted (read: disclaimer) that the collection, results, and review of the aggregate survey data is not professionally valid but will serve our purposes here, regardless.
Our group’s data came from surveying demonstrators at the Women’s March held in downtown Portland, OR on January 21, 2017. In our case, responses were written on hard copy versions of the original survey and submitted at a later date. Our responses collected were inherently biased as the persons surveyed were at a politically charged event and likely had strong opinions on policies including “Climate Change.” However, the entire class data set is skewed from other inaccurate survey practices. In any case, students approached respondents on a “pick-and-choose” basis. Some may have tried to counteract their own biases by surveying different sorts of persons but manipulated selection does not remove bias. The only way for our data to have been completely valid would have been to randomly choose a single date for all students to canvas the city at randomly chosen points, where they would ask every person that passed them.
Analysis and Comparison
The survey results definitely display an overall concern around the issue of climate change. When asked the question “If you compare climate change to other issues today, how important is it to you personally on a scale from 1-10?” 27% of those surveyed reported the issue as a 10 with the average rating being 7.6, which was common for most demographics. We were able to find a similar level of concern between males and females, age groups, race, and location, with distribution of their results concentrated at higher ratings (5-10).
Of the respondents that tended to rate their concern below a 5, there were a collection of similar thoughts on the issue. Many in this group admitted to not being educated on the matter and had very little interest in gaining knowledge on the subject. They did not view this issue as pressing because it was not personally affecting them and they were not being informed of the global impacts climate change could have. Subjects that responded with a rating greater than 5 generally saw climate change as an urgent problem that will affect everyone unless the issue is addressed. What was interesting was that each individual put the blame on something different and also had different ideas for solutions. Some were concerned with animal life, some with air quality, and many reported concern regarding policies on climate change due to the Trump administration.
Our data are similar the cross national data where there is a general concern about climate change. The Pew Research Center regularly takes a series of polls regarding climate change worldwide, one of them by the Princeton Survey Research Associations in January of 2017 interviewed 2,176 persons by telephone. A variety of questions related to climate change were asked such as: “should climate change be seen as a top priority lower or not important” or “do you see global climate change as a minor threat major threat or not a threat.” Over 70% of people interviewed recognized tackling climate change should be a priority for our country, and see it as a threat to our planet. This data is very similar to the survey performed by ENVS 160. Over 70% of those surveyed by ENVS students in Portland responded that climate change had an importance of 7 or greater as an issue in the United States.The city-wide and nation-wide consensus is clear; climate change is seen as an important issue to the majority of people.
To compare the united states to the rest of the world, More US citizens on average view climate change as a problem compared to international averages according to another PEW global survey. In the U.S 45% of people are very concerned about climate change, and 29% say that it is somewhat serious. The country that has the lowest percentage of people saying that climate change is a very serious issue is China, at a measly 18% and a whooping 57% saying that it is somewhat serious. Conversely, Brazil has the highest proportion of people saying that Climate change is a very serious problem at 86% and 12% saying that climate change is somewhat serious. The average percentage of people per country is 52.8% thinking that climate change is a serious concern and an average of 31.2% thinking climate change is somewhat serious. On a global scale, the U.S is not the most concerned about climate change but see it as a larger issue than the majority of the world.
Conclusion
Most of the data collected was not extremely surprising and generally conformed to expectations about Portland’s attitudes towards climate change. Our team was surprised to find that the oldest residents of Portland (with a perceived age of about 60 years or more) were actually the demographic that was most concerned about climate change, with an average concern score of 8.25 out of a possible 10. It was also interesting to see that the average rate of concern did not necessarily increase with age: there is a noticeable dip from the “Under 30” category’s average of 7.84 to the “30-60” category’s 7.19. We were surprised to see that one of the of the youngest residents interviewed (a twelve-year-old boy) reportedly did not know what climate change was. Portland is generally thought of as a very environmentally conscious city, so this instance (as well as other interviews in which the people surveyed seemed relatively uneducated) was informative. In addition, we learned that many of the people surveyed commented that they thought issues unrelated to climate change were significantly more pressing. This result was not necessarily unexpected, seeing as the residents of Portland are known for being socially conscious, often in a very passionate way that may cause social issues to overshadow environmental issues that may seem to be science issues rather than social ones. Despite many people saying that climate change was not the most important issue to them, the mode level of concern was very high, with 36 out of 133 respondents reporting their concern to be a level 10. The lowest reported level of importance was a 2, with a mere 4 responses. Our team was surprised to find that out of so many respondents, there was not a single flat-out climate change denier or someone who simply did not care at all.
This survey will be useful to keep in mind going forward because it revealed to us that every person has a unique set of circumstances and knowledge that shapes their viewpoint on climate change and other issues. Within the climate change debates, it is imperative to consider why people think the way that they do about the issue.
Featured image credit:
Mori, Francois. France Climate Countdown #924668817494. December 11, 2015. Paris, France. AP Images. Associated Press. Accessed January 31, 2017. http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/France-Climate-Countdown/e84ef73b372048918d42b7874d32f9db/124/0#first.