New research tells us why populations differ sharply on environmental regs, oil drilling

 

[caption id="attachment_10758" align="alignleft" width="250" caption="Offshore oil drilling"][/caption]

Carol Forsloff -There will be a rally in support of oil drilling and ending the moratorium for deepwater drilling for oil on the coast in Lafayette on July 21 at the Cajun Dome.  Why do some people want to continue drilling when there is an oil spill disaster while others consider it vital for their future?

New research takes a look at this in the journal Rural Sociology in an article entitled, “Place Effects on Environmental Views.”

“Our research shows that people who live in rural areas with high unemployment rates are less likely to support environmental regulations. Economic pressures help to understand why, in spite of the devastation caused by the BP oil spill, many residents of the Gulf Coast oppose a moratorium on off-shore drilling,” said Larry Hamilton, professor of sociology, senior fellow at the Carsey Institute at UNH, and lead author of the study. The study is co-authored by Chris Colocousis, assistant professor at James Madison University, and Mil Duncan, director of the Carsey Institute at UNH.

Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, reflects the views of many people in the Gulf Coast region, with views that may sound alien to many but make sense within the confines of the cultural views of the region.

To look at which some people adopt conservation and environmental control and others do not, researchers surveyed more than 7,800 people in 19 rural counties of nine states.   These states included Midwestern farm country, the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, Northwest, Northeast, Midwestern farm country, Appalachia, Mississippi Delta and Alabama's Black Belt.  These areas represented four brand types of rural locations where there has been resource and population decline, chronic poverty, and an economy driven by certain amenities.

The states consisted of seven geographic regions -- the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, Northeast, Midwestern farm country, Appalachia, Mississippi Delta, and Alabama’s Black Belt – that represented four broad types of rural places characterized by resource and population decline, amenity-driven population growth, amenity-driven population growth and decline, and chronic poverty.

What researchers have found is that people in rural areas with high unemployment rates are less likely to support conservation efforts and restrictive environmental regulations.. “People living in areas with high unemployment rates may perceive environmental rules as a threat to their economic livelihood,” Hamilton said.

People in rural areas with high rates of population growth are more likely to support conservation efforts and environmental regulations. “In such places, population change could be altering the environment in visible ways and make it seem more in need of protection,” Hamilton explained.

Then there are other factors that influence views on conservation, that appear to be classic and predictable and these include Republicans, older respondents, and those who regularly attend church.. Women, nonminority, and better-educated respondents are more likely to favor conservation.

Similar to views on conservation, the researchers confirmed previous research that shows environmental regulations are supported more by younger, better educated, and less Republican respondents.

When interacting and planning for any given area, these aspects of why people look favorably on environmental safeguards or do not can help people understand the differing views on these issues.  Folks need to see why people in the same region will share the same views of an environmental situation.

“For example, in our Rocky Mountain counties, the growing economy based on recreation and natural amenities gives people less reason to perceive conflict between jobs and conservation. In Appalachia, on the other hand, coal mining interests have cast debates over mountaintop-removal mining as a choice between jobs and conservation,” Hamilton says.