Study Of Environmental Attitudes Research Articles

The greening of Christianity? A study of environmental attitudes over time

ABSTRACTIn contradistinction to the ideas of Lynn White and others who have long suggested that the Judeo-Christian tradition fosters a ‘dominion over nature’ ethos, a number of scholars have recently argued that there has been a ‘greening of Christianity’. Largely missing from this debate is strong evidence at the individual level as to whether Christians have in fact adopted deeper environmental concerns over time. This study provides such evidence through an examination of longitudinal data from Gallup’s annual surveys on the environment. The analysis reveals little evidence that Christians have expressed more environmental concern over time. In fact, across many measures, Christians tend to show less concern about the environment. This pattern holds across Catholic, Protestant and other Christian denominations and for differing levels of religiosity. These findings support a conclusion that there has not been a discernible ‘greening of Christianity’ among the American public.

Nature Religion as a Cultural System?Sources of Environmentalist Action and Rhetoric in a Contemporary Pagan Community

Clifford Geertz defines religion as “a system of symbols which act to produce powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations.” The Geertzian framework is applied here to the use by the contemporary Pagan community of Nature, the Earth, and the Environment as symbols in creating a system of pro-environmentalist moods and motivations that spill over into non-religious aspects of life. If Geertz is correct, Pagan imagery of Earth/ Nature as nurturing but vulnerable mother should contribute to creating a mood of concern about the state of the Earth, and motivation to engage in environmental activism or other pro-environmentalist actions. Results of a quantitative study of environmental attitudes and actions of 159 people who self-identify as Wiccan or Pagan are reported. Their responses to Gallup Poll questions on the environment are compared to those of the general population. In general, Pagan respondents did not report greatly higher levels of environmental concerns than Gallup Poll respondents, but did report a significantly better record of following pro-environmental practices. Questions are raised, however, about the degree to which differences between Pagan responses and those of others on Gallup Poll questions are the result of religious outlook vs. other confounding variables, such as levels of education. These numerical data serve as the starting point for an analysis that seeks to understand what an ethic of care for the Earth means to contemporary Pagans in their everyday lives. The author examines rhetorical uses to which Pagans put Earth/Nature imagery in explaining their own ideas and behavior with regard to environmental issues.

Redefining Rational Choice in Environmental Affairs

Environmental Dilemmas and Policy Design. By Huib Pellikaan, Robert J. van der Veen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 247 pp., $65.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-521-62156-9), $23.00 paper (ISBN: 0-521-62764-8). In Environmental Dilemmas and Policy Design , Huib Pellikaan and Robert van der Veen present an empirical study of environmental attitudes in the Netherlands. They use the results of this study to assess the Dutch government's attempts to foster “self-regulation policy” for certain environmental issues. Pellikaan and van der Veen rely heavily on rational choice theory in their methodology, and the language throughout the book is rather technical. Therefore, the book will be most useful to specialists in rational choice theory or to scholars interested in analyzing collective action problems through the lens of rational choice. Environmental Dilemmas and Policy Design is structured in three parts. The first section provides background to collective action theory and Dutch self-regulation policies. The second section provides a detailed description of the authors' survey of environmental attitudes in the Netherlands. The third section attempts to assess self-regulation policies and asks larger theoretical questions related to moral commitment and collective action problems. Although the book as a whole is too technical and the language too inaccessible for most general classroom use, the study does make an important contribution to the evolving literature that critiques traditional assumptions of rational choice and collective action theory. (For an introduction to rational choice theory, see Arrow 1963 and Riker 1990. For an introduction to critiques of rational choice, see Sen 1997.) Most of the literature on rational choice theory and collective action assumes that rational individuals will value effectiveness and efficiency above all. …

If It Doesn't Directly Affect You, You Don't Think About It’: a qualitative study of young people's environmental attitudes in two Australian cities

SUMMARY This article presents a range of findbigs from a qualitative study of the environmental attitudes of young people across their final 2 years of secondary school in the two Australian cities of Melbourne and Brisbane. Focus groups comprising the same 16‐ to 17‐year‐old students in 12 schools were interviewed twice, 12 months apart. Several minor differences were found in the attitudes of students between the two cities, but these pale alongside the common, indeed, overwhelming feelings of environmental concern mixed with frustration, cynicism and action paralysis that were reported. The ambivalence towards the environment that results, together with the individualistic frameworks for explaining environmental issues that were displayed, point to areas for renewed curriculum attention in secondary schools and directions for future research.

A study of environmental attitudes and concepts of geography student‐teachers: Implications for teacher education

This small‐scale study explores the environmental attitudes and concepts of environment and environmental education of geography student‐teachers. A combination of questionnaire survey and interviews was used. The survey findings showed that the geography student‐teachers had relatively high levels of environmental concern and verbal commitment towards environmental issues but had relatively low levels of actual commitment concerning environmental matters. The results emerging from the second part of this study suggest that geography student‐teachers may have some commonalities in their conceptions of the environment and environmental education. The implications of these results for teacher education are discussed.