Justifying the Environment Beat
A tipsheet by Hannah Northey, graduate assistant, Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
Download a printable version of this tipsheet
Need some ammo to continue or strengthen your organization’s support of the reporting of environmental issues?
When Robert McClure, the environment reporter for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, needed to make that argument, he went to the polls. His advice is the same as selling a good story: Pitch the local angle.
Local political figures, environmental groups and chambers of commerce often do surveys that can bolster your case, McClure says. He found an October 2004 Elway Poll showing that 78 percent of Seattle residents agreed with this statement: “When it comes to politics, I more often agree with environmental groups.”
Another example of a regional survey: This study by the Biodiversity Project found Michigan residents are more likely to worry about water shortages, think that the Great Lakes are harmed a great deal by low water and invasive species and express personal responsibility for the condition of the lakes.
That kind of local and regional data can be bolstered by national polls and surveys. McClure solicited help from members of the Society of Environmental journalists to come up with these measures of public interest in the environment:
- This 2005 Harris Poll found three in four adult Americans believe that “protecting the environment is so important that requirements and standards cannot be too high, and continuing environmental improvements must be made regardless of cost.” It found that 58 percent of adult Americans consider themselves sympathetic to environmental concerns.
- This May 2004 Yale study found that most Americans are troubled by environmental problems as much as they are by the much higher-profile issues of jobs and the cost of gas. The study found that the environment rated among participants as one of the top three challenges facing the United States.
- The American Enterprise Institute’s analysis of polling data concludes most Americans consider themselves sympathetic to, but are not active in, the environmental movement.
- This study by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life compared the views of Evangelical Christians, Mainline Protestants and white Roman Catholics. It found that traditionalists, centrists and modernists of each group agree on the need for environmental protection.
- This study by The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation contrasted American’s attitudes toward and knowledge about the environment. It shows most adults fail a basic environmental news quiz, yet strongly support environmental education in school.
- This Harris Poll contrasts the views of Americans and Europeans on the environment. The poll found that few Americans feel very positively about the environment in any of the countries, with the exception of the 51 percent who feel very positive about the U.S. environment.
- This Roper Starch Worldwide poll found that the environment was on Americans’ list of the top 10 challenges the world will face in the next 50 years. In addition, 66 percent of Americans agree that the three goals of sustainable development – economic growth, environmental protections and the health and happiness of the people – can be accomplished without sacrificing any one of them.
