Economic Growth or the Environment? When Cornered, Americans Believe Economic Growth is More Important

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – July 30, 2008 – As economic conditions worsen, people who are asked to make a decision between protecting the environment or economic growth and development have moved even more strongly into the economic growth column. Specifically, a Harris Poll conducted online among 2,454 adults aged 18 and over between June 9 and 16, 2008 by Harris Interactive^® found:

• U.S. adults are divided on how they perceive things in their own community as 38 percent say it is going in the right direction while 37 percent believe things have "pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track". This perception has gotten better in the past few months. In November, almost half (47%) of adults felt things were going off on the wrong track in their community and one-third (32%) felt they were going in the right direction;
• More than three in five Americans (63%) say economic growth and development is more important to their region while one-quarter (27%) believe protecting the environment is more important. Just over three in ten Easterners (31%) believe protecting the environment is more important while seven in ten Midwesterners (69%) believe economic growth is more important;
• The focus on economic growth has grown over the last year. In June of 2007, Americans were more divided as 48 percent thought economic growth was more important and 43 percent believed protecting the environment was more important. In November, a small 51 percent to 37 percent majority believed economic growth was more important; and,
• Looking ahead to the future, just over half of U.S. adults (56%) believe that the quality of life in the area they live in will decrease for their children and grandchildren while 44 percent believe it will increase. Younger generations are more optimistic on this – over half (56%) of Echo Boomers (those aged 18-31) believe the quality of life will increase compared to 38 percent of Baby Boomers (those aged 44-62) and one-third (32%) of Matures (those aged 63 and older).

In Canada, there are different opinions on some of these topics:

• Canadians are much more positive about the direction of their community as over three in five (63%) believe things in their community are going in the right direction and 37 percent say they are going off on the wrong track;
• Canadians are more evenly split on which is more important, economics or environment as 45 percent say it is economic growth and development and 44 percent believe it is protecting the environment; and,
• One area Canadians agree with Americans on is the quality of life in their region for children and grandchildren as 56 percent of Canadians say it will decrease and 44 percent believe it will increase.

As the economic woes continue, anything that places the economy versus something else will see economy most likely winning the battle. But, many polls, including earlier Harris Polls, show very strong support for strengthening environmental protections and regulations. Also, most people do not see the hard trade off between economic development and protecting the environment. In fact, many people believe that we not only can do both of these, but that we should be doing both.

"Do you feel things in your own community today are going in the right direction or do you feel things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

Note: n/a means not asked

"Do you feel things in your own community today are going in the right direction or do you feel things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

"What would you say is more important to your region – protecting the environment or economic growth and development?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

"What would you say is more important to your region – protecting the environment or economic growth and development?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

"Thinking about the quality of life that will be here for your or your friends’ children and grandchildren…do you see their quality of life in the area where you live increasing or decreasing in the future?"

Base: All adults

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 percent due to rounding

This Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between June 9 and 16, 2008 among 2,454 adults. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Harris/Decima completed 1,009 online surveys among a random sample of Harris/Decima panel members. The study was conducted between June 9 and 16, 2008.This was a standard panel survey among a random sample of our Canadian panel members. In a fashion similar to a telephone study, email addresses from our panel were pulled at random, according to population and gender specifications, in order to make the study representative of the Canadian population by region and gender. When contacted to solicit participation, participants had no prior knowledge of the subject matter of the study. Harris/Decima controls access to the study through passwords to ensure that respondents can participate only one time. Subsequent to completion of the study, the data was weighted for region, age, and gender.

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Q670, 680, 685