Despite the central importance of the United States economy to domestic affairs and the outcomes of national elections, Americans don't always see it as the most decisive issue. One illustration of this is the American public's long-standing inclination to say that economic growth should take a back seat to environmental protection. A Gallup question asked since 1984 has consistently found that a majority of Americans favor the environment over the economy in situations in which the two interests conflict.
The policy competition between the environment and the economy is evident with regard to such matters as oil and gas exploration, fuel efficiency standards for cars, and regulation of industrial output of greenhouse gases -- all issues that have been on the public stage in recent years. While the public's position on these and other policy debates varies by issue, Americans' instinctive reaction to the tradeoff seems to be "Of course we want a strong economy, but we aren't willing to pay for it with undue harm to [in the words of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America"] ‘the mountains, the prairies and the oceans, white with foam.'"
Gallup's key question on this subject asks respondents whether they believe "protection of the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of curbing economic growth" or whether "economic growth should be given priority, even if the environment suffers to some extent." The most recent results, collected March 4-7*, found 54% of Americans siding with environmental protection and just 36% siding with the economy.
That 36% of Americans represents a fairly high level of public preference for the economy on this measure -- in fact, it is the highest level recorded in all the years Gallup has asked the question. However, the figure is fairly consistent with public sentiments observed in sluggish economic times. A year ago, when the latest economic downturn was just sinking in, 33% of Americans sided with economic growth, similar to the 32% recorded in 1992 at the tail end of the previous recession.
Similarly, the high points for public support for the environment have occurred during times of economic strength, such as 1984 and 2000. In these years, 70% of Americans or more told Gallup that environmental protection should prevail over economic growth.
Sharp Differences Evident by Age, Party
The pro-environment outlook is particularly strong among younger generations of Americans, with the greatest divide evident between those under age 65 and those over this age.
Perhaps even more noteworthy, given the political framework of the environmental-economic debate, is that Republicans and Democrats sharply disagree on this question. A majority of Republicans take the pro-economic growth side of the issue, while a majority of Democrats take the pro-environment side.
Independents are even more pro-environment on this question than are Democrats. Although the slightly younger average age of political independents compared to Republicans and Democrats may help explain this pattern, age alone can't explain independents' heavy skew toward the environment.
*These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,006 adults, 18 years and older, conducted March 4-7, 2002. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
