By Jon Hosch and Evan Howell
Introduction and Procedure
On January 27, 2017 we embarked into downtown Portland to investigate public opinion on climate change. We were armed with an ENVS 160 survey rating citizen’s concern of climate change in relation to other issues on a scale from 1-10. After receiving a number of diverse responses, we submitted our data to the class total.
The survey, in addition to questions regarding concern for climate change, included demographic information such as race, gender, age, and location of surveyed individual (e.g., downtown or periphery of the greater Portland area). When analyzing our results, we aggregated the data into graphical representations for further investigation. We created a histogram of the distribution of the concern scale, a pie chart of the race distribution, and various bar graphs comparing the gender and age perceptions as well as the location of data collection (all of which can be found below). Finally, we performed national and cross-national research drawing from surveys by the Pew Global Attitudes Project and the International Social Survey Program and analyzed them in conjunction with our Portland data.
Data and Results
Portland’s perception of climate change in relation to other issues tended to favor the top 50% of the 10 point numerical scale (See Figure 1). However, when considering these data, we must acknowledge the possible inaccuracies due to demographic biases. For instance, the most prominent demographic was of white men under the age of 30 years old in the downtown area. In fact, those who identified as caucasian accounted for 79.6% of the overall data (See Figure 2), those who identified as male and under 30 years old accounted for 52.3% (See Figure 3 and 4), and the vast majority of survey responses (69.7%) came from the downtown area (See Figure 5). The major prominence of these groupings suggests construed data in favor of the above demographic in the downtown Portland area. We now turn our attention to data collected on a national scale.
National Data
The International Social Survey Program surveyed people’s opinion in 2010 of how much of a threat global temperature increase posed. The majority opinion centered around the somewhat dangerous (7 out of 25)(See Figure 7). However, the Pew Research Center conducted a similar survey in 2017 asking whether “global climate change is a major threat, a minor threat, or not a threat to the well being of the United States?” (See Figure 6). Their data closely resembles that of the class’ Portland data, with the overall opinion interpreting climate change negatively thus concentrating on the higher end of the percentile spectrum (See Figure 1). There seems to be a shift of national opinion over the past 7 years towards more concern over the issue of climate change. Despite data from 2010, there now seems to be public consensus that climate change is an immediate and important topic for discussion both inside Portland and across the country as a whole.
The International Social Survey Program surveyed the American people’s opinions to the following two questions: what is the “Most important problem for [the country] as a whole?” and what is the “Most important problem which affects you and your family?” (See Figures 8 and 7). The two included options span from “domestic waste disposal” to “genetically modified foods”. Yet the most popular answer for the country-wide survey question was “using up our natural resources” (See Figure 8), whereas the most common answer for the personal-based question was “air pollution” (See Figure 7). The lack of similarity between these two spectrums suggests a difference in opinion of the well-being of one’s country versus one’s family. Regardless, climate change ranked 4th and 7th respectively for each. We figured this to be an interesting result considering that the issues of natural resource use and air pollution contribute to the overall problem of climate change. Perhaps it was part of the intent of the survey authors to see how much of a disconnect there existed in the minds of American citizens when comparing the concept of climate change to other seemingly separate environmental issues. This additional 2010 data again sharply contrasts that of the more current Pew Research Center survey and of our Portland survey. Most Portlanders saw climate change as near the top of their list of national priorities, rather than below other environmental concerns.
Cross-National Data
Several similarities can be observed when comparing the data that we gathered in the Portland area to that of the cross-national surveys conducted by the 2010 International Social Survey Program. For example, when asked “what the most important problem that affects you and your family was” surveyed individuals in more developed countries, such as Spain and Japan, claimed that climate change ranked higher on their list of concern; while less developed countries did not hold environmental issues with such high regards (See Figure 9). A similar distribution of answers was gathered when asked if climate change was the “most important problem for [the country] as a whole” with Spain and Japan again claiming that they valued climate change over most other issues (See Figure 10). However, it is interesting to note that, in relation to these standings, the United States ranked below a 2 on a 10 point scale for both of these questions. This being the case, each of these surveys were taken in 2010 allowing for some changes in public opinion in the last seven years. These demographic differences and the responses that accompany them can be easily seen as similar to the data gathered in the Portland area. Perhaps a similar ideology is shared between those in nations that regard climate change higher than most other issues (e.g., Spain and Japan) and the liberal Pacific Northwest.
Conclusion
Over the process of creating this report, we have been surprised by many factors. One example would be that of the many negative responses we encountered when conducting the survey downtown. We assumed that the majority if not all of the responses we received would have favored interest in climate change. Another surprising aspect we encountered was the fact that national surveys ranked aspects of climate change (e.g., air pollution, overconsumption of natural resources, etc.) higher than climate change itself. Finally, we were taken aback by the incredibly low ranking of the United States in the 2010 comparison to other countries regarding their standings on climate change importance. Despite our country’s high fossil fuel consumption, we seem to lack interest in its repercussions. In conjunction with these discoveries, we found that there existed a gray area in public opinion of climate change throughout this project; it goes to show how disagreement is very prominent in climate change discussions. This idea, of course, is not a new one for us as many of these themes have been explored in Mike Hulme’s book, Why We Disagree About Climate Change, within the complicated dimensions of science, politics, economics, religion, and media. We are now more reinforced in our understanding that climate change is indeed a complicated issue that yields debate from a large pool of differing perspectives and ideologies.