Public Opinion
The US results from the 1st Annual World Environment Review, published on June 5, 2007 revealed that:
- 74% are concerned about climate change.
- 80% think their Government should do more to tackle global warming.
- 84% think that the US is too dependent on fossil fuels.
- 72% think that the US is too reliant on foreign oil.
- 79% think that the US Government should do more to increase the number of hybrid cars that are sold.
- 67% think that the US Government should allow more off shore drilling.
An April CBS News/New York Times poll collected a wide range of data that demonstrates the public’s desire for serious action on global warming. By an almost two-to-one margin (63 percent to 32 percent), the public endorses the idea that protecting the environment is so important that “requirements and standards cannot be too high” and that “continuing environmental improvements must be made regardless of cost.”
The public is also quite clear on its priorities when it comes to promoting energy conservation versus increasing the supply of oil, coal, and natural gas. When asked which of these should be the higher priority, the public chooses energy conservation by a very wide 68 percent-to-21 percent margin.
The public also predominantly believes that the need to cut down on energy consumption and protect the environment means increased energy efficiency should be mandated for certain products. Ninety-two percent of Americans now support such requirements.
Read more about this topic: Energy Policy Of The United States
Famous quotes related to public opinion:
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Public opinion contains all kinds of falsity and truth, but it takes a great man to find the truth in it. The great man of the age is the one who can put into words the will of his age, tell his age what its will is, and accomplish it. What he does is the heart and the essence of his age, he actualizes his age. The man who lacks sense enough to despise public opinion expressed in gossip will never do anything great.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)