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Environmental attitudes in the aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 119; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.10.001

1873-524X

Katherine Farrow, Ayeisha A. Brinson, Kristy Wallmo, Daniel K. Lew,

Risk Perception and Management

In the 1960s and 1970's, prominent environmental disasters seemed to mobilize the U.S. public, and many key environmental laws were subsequently enacted. Theories surrounding public opinion formation, however, generally regard single events as unlikely to impact attitudes in a major way. Given the conflicting evidence provided by anecdotal accounts and public opinion theory, we explore whether the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (Gulf Oil Spill) impacted public concern for the environment in the United States. In this study we use data from a national-level survey implemented before and after the Gulf Oil Spill to examine pre- and post-spill environmental attitudes as measured by a subset of the New Ecological Paradigm scale. We find that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the recent Gulf Oil Spill had a significant impact on environmental attitudes, a result consistent with theories concerning the influence of individual events on public opinion. Additional findings imply that some types of messages are likely to be more effective than others in public communications about the environment.