Environmental policymaking has remained an important issue in American public policy for many years. While many individuals have proenvironmental attitudes, they remain unwilling to take the actions necessary to achieve environmental goals. Many variables have been used to explain support for environmental policymaking. This study looks at the effect of uncertainty about environmental quality, perception of risk from environmental hazards, and trust in government and university scientists on willingness to take environmental action. The study examines the impact of these three variables on two environmental issues—tap water and nuclear power. The data were collected from a national sample of 400 individuals. This article presents the results of this research and examines the complex relationships among risks, trust, uncertainty, and willingness to take environmental action. The conclusions improve our understanding of environmental attitudes as well as have practical implications for policymakers who need to build public support for policies designed to improve the environment.
Research on attitudes toward environmental policy making has often overlooked the important role that risks play in forming individual attitudes towards the environment. Similarly, this research often assumes that the factors that affect attitudes are similar across different environmental domains. The purpose of this research is to examine how the factors that affect an individual's willingness to get involved in environmental policy making differ on two environmental issues - nuclear power and drinking water. The study utilises multivariate statistical techniques to explore the relationship that uncertainty, risk, and trust play in an individual's willingness to take action in environmental policy making. The data consist of responses to a national random telephone survey of 403 adults in the United States. The individuals surveyed are more likely to take action on the less avoidable potential threat of nuclear power than they are on drinking water. The respondents believe that the potential harm from nuclear power is greater than that from drinking water. The individuals most likely to take action are those who indicate that they are interested in environmental issues.environmental attitudes, environmental policy making, nuclear power, drinking water, uncertainty, risk, trust,
With an ever-expanding stream of solid waste, and limited possibilities for disposal, communities increasingly have to make difficult decisions about where to store these by-products of daily living. The authors use survey data from seven counties in Florida that have recently dealt with solid waste location decisions to assess the extent to which citizen attitudes reflect a NIMBY perspective to these facilities. Contrary to what the NIMBY phenomena predicts, respondents who lived closer to existing or proposed facilities were not more likely to perceive them as dangerous as those living further away. In addition, the respondents were able to list problems and benefits to support their perceptions of danger posed by these facilities. These findings suggest that citizens do not always respond to environmental risks by gut reaction or without information as is sometimes suggested in the NIMBY literature.
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