Climate Change is such an expansive issue that it can be a difficult thing to swallow. It is very difficult to assign value to an issue that many see as an issue of the future, as well as an issue not addressed frequently enough, especially politically. Therefore opinion on this topic ranges greatly, as we see in the media, in every day life and even in the government. Given this range of opinion and concern about climate change, the Environmental Studies program and Lewis and Clark decided to dig deeper and get data from everyday people to see where they place their value on the topic of climate change. In order to do this we sent numerous groups into either downtown Portland, OR or to the outside periphery of the city to collect data from citizens of our neighborhood to get a better grasp on the public view of this topic.
Our group traveled to the inner periphery of Portland in a town called Hillsdale. We conducted our surveys in a small sized market. We approached 2 individuals, one a young male and one a middle-aged female, and gave them information on our survey which luckily they were willing to participate in! These surveys were quick, simply just asking them to rate their level of concern about climate change on a scale of 1-10, and give any additional thoughts. We then filled out the surveys as fit, and thanked them graciously for their participation. After our data was collected, ENVS students compiled all data into a spreadsheet where we could begin analysis. Below we have provided the graphs cultivated from our collective data and our thoughts behind our discoveries.
Our Results:
Figure 1.
The collective data that ENVS collected shows that overall, climate change is seen as quite an important topic in the Portland area. The most common values assigned to the importance of climate change were 10 and 8, both quite high numbers. Therefore there was a slight range in opinion but overall people seemed to agree that climate change was a significant issue, with a few outliers (Figure 1).
Figure 2.
There were a few noticeable trends within different categories of gender, age, race, and location. There was no significant correlation with gender, male and female response rates were only .2 different, and for unspecified/other gender there was not enough data to create a legitimately representative mean. There did seem to be a trend with age groups (Figure 2). People under the age of thirty seemed to deem climate change as an important issue in their opinion, with an average value of 8.6. The age range of 60+ also had a high average of 8.3, whereas middle aged people had a lower average of 7.2.
Figure 3.
As for race and ethnicity, people who could be identified as black or latino gave the highest responses on average (Figure 3), whereas white (7.7), asian (7.4) and other/unsure (6.5) had lower averages. Although, there was no significant difference between the different race groups that we surveyed, but the slight differentiation was interesting to see. It is important to note that the race that the most data was collected from was White, therefore the average compiled for White people is the most valid, whereas ideally, we would want to collect more data for the other races in order to get more statistically significant data that would be more representative of any trends regarding race/ethnicity if any.
Data Comparison:
According to Pew Global Attitudes & Trends Question Database, the majority of people who contributed data stated that climate change was a significant issue, with 12 people saying it is not a problem. Although this seems low compared to the 45 saying it is significant, 12 is the highest number in the group of “not a problem” out of all of the countries that participated, tied with Ethiopia. This seems pretty consistent with the data ENVS collected, with a higher number showing concern, but still some who do not see it as a problem.
Another survey done through Pew Global Attitudes & Trends Question Database indicated that 52% of participants saw climate change as a significant threat to the well-being of the United States. Whereas, only 14% believed that it was no threat at all. These seem like numbers that goes along well with the ENVS data collected. As a vast majority cared about the dangers of climate change. (Figure 4)
Figure 4.
A survey done through GSS Data Explorer surveyed people on whether or not they believed that rise in global temperatures due to climate change is either extremely- not dangerous at all, or if they just did not know. The majority of people stated that it was at least somewhat dangerous or above (54%). Although, that is not a majority by much and 46% of people stated that they did not see it as much of a danger at all. After looking at this data, it seems as though the general opinion of the danger and importance of climate change in the Portland area was quite a bit higher.
Conclusion:
When evaluating data of the opinions coming from different genders, race, location, and age, it’s difficult to come up with conclusions as to why people have their beliefs, although we can speculate. People who answered a 10 strongly believe that climate change is a huge factor in today’s society stating opinions such as, “climate change is a serious issue that requires both citizens and systems of government around the world to unite in improving policies about environmental protection and reduction of fossil fuel use.” But, others seemed to not think of climate change as a serious topic.That may be because they’re either uneducated, as some admitted, or they just don’t care enough to look into the issue. Many people stated that they just don’t know what to do about climate change or how it even works. Others believed that there are more important issues to deal with such as women’s rights.
Additionally, not much of the data we received was surprising other than a few low numbers of how climate change is important to other people personally. We were anticipating Portland to be very eco-friendly and gung ho about the idea of climate change, which it did prove to be overall with the averages produced, although some people did not seem to care about the issue at all. This was a bit disheartening to hear but it does reflect how this is an issue that is debated and disagreed upon, and these clashing opinions are bound to be found everywhere, including a city with an tree-hugging reputation.
Overall, the debate over climate change is still one that should be of high importance. Clearly Portland acknowledges the seriousness of this issue and is a high priority for them. But, I think to understand this issue more we need to conduct more research to get a better representation of the trends present, as well as get a better understanding of why people disagree on this issue so hopefully we can eventually find a compromise in order to combat this dire issue.