| Abstract: |
People make subjective judgments about the severity of environmental
problems and on future land use relying on certain information, and
on their experiences with the problem. This article examines
perceptions of the severity of environmental problems, willingness to
expend future funds to solve these problems, and future land use for
the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina
as a function of race. The null hypothesis that there are no racial
differences in perceptions was tested. Of those interviewed, 23% of
the 399 people were black, 75% were white, and 2% identified
themselves as other. Blacks were significantly more willing than
whites to spend federal funds to solve environmental problems such as
cleaning up the SRS and Superfund sites, fixing ozone depletion, and
reducing the threats from radon and high-tension power lines. There
were statistically significant racial differences in preferences for
future land use at the SRS, with blacks having a higher preference for
using it as a preserve, and whites having a higher preference for a
research park, camping, hiking, and hunting. These results indicate
that the environmental concerns of the blacks interviewed were equal
to or stronger than those of the whites. This is in contrast to much
of previously published work that shows that blacks exhibit lower
concerns and actions than whites for environmental problems. |