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In a recent survey of over 3,000 Chinese citizens, environmental issues emerged as a big problem in the eyes of the majority of respondents.** The 2008 survey, conducted as part of the Pew Research Center’s Pew Global Attitudes Project, found that about three quarters of those surveyed (74%) cite air pollution as a big problem. 66% of respondents ranked water pollution as a big problem.

But not only did Chinese say they were concerned about environmental problems, but they also said something should be done about it. As many as 80% of Chinese think protecting the environment should be made a priority, even if this results in slower growth and a potential loss of jobs. The new data suggest the Chinese people may be struggling with some of the consequences of economic growth.

What I find most striking about these results are: A) That concern for the environment is so salient among the Chinese, that people are willing to sacrifice some economic growth and jobs to take steps towards correcting those environmental problems, and B) That the concern for the environment was based on “pollution” themes. Pollution-based environmental problems are salient because they are visible, tangible, and ‘real’ products of industrial growth (as can be witnessed in this excellent series of short films). These types of problems were also perceived as very important to Americans in the late 1960s and early 1970s, before the U.S. enacted its core environmental policy. Can we expect that to be the next for China? And if so, when will that next step actually commence?

**Methodology: “Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 3,212 adults in China between March 28 and April 19, 2008, a period which followed the March 10 onset of civil unrest on Tibet and preceded the May 12 earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province. The sample, which is disproportionately representative of China’s urban areas, includes eight major cities, as well as medium-sized towns and rural areas in eight Chinese provinces. The area covered by the sample represents approximately 42% of the country’s adult population.”

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Pew Research Center

The poll, conducted over July 25-27 found that Americans seem more prepared to support candidates who focus on demand-side management (consumer conservation of energy), raising fuel efficiency standards, increasing government spending on alternative fuels, establishing price controls on gasoline, imposing a windfall profits tax on oil companies, and easing restrictions on offshore drilling.

The two positions receiving the strongest “Less Likely to Vote For” percentages - “Building more nuclear power plants” and “Suspending the federal gas tax for several months” - are both positions Senator McCain has strongly endorsed throughout the summer.

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The survey results come as Obama, fresh off what had largely been viewed as a successful tour of the Middle East and Europe, including a speech to 200,000 Germans in Berlin. A recent Gallup Poll showed that Obama had actually gotten a bump in the polls while overseas. But the trip quickly became fodder for an aggressive McCain campaign strategy that included a TV ad comparing the celebrity status of Barack Obama to that of Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Pollster John Zogby said:

“The McCain camp seems to have turned lemons into lemonade. Huge crowds and mostly favorable press reviews of Obama’s overseas trip have been trumped by McCain’s attacks on Obama. Loss of support for Obama among young voters may also be due to his perceived reversals on issues they care about, such as the war and government eavesdropping.”

It is not always easy for me to make the link between environmental issues and electoral politics. However, it is clear this time around that the McCain/Republican party focus on drilling for more oil may, in fact, be gaining them some political favor in the eyes of the American voter. McCain made significant gains at Obama’s expense among some of what had been Obama’s strongest demographic groups including young people, women, independents, and single voters.

So, do you think these early poll results really matter? Or more importantly, do you think that poll results themselves can have an impact on final voting outcomes?

1. This Zogby survey, commissioned by Associated TV, included 1,011 likely voters and was conducted July 31-Aug. 1, 2008. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. A more complete methodological treatment can be found here.

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From the 200,000 Germans that showed up to see Senator Obama speak in Berlin, to the press conference he had with a gushing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, it is not hard to understand why one European newspaper referred to him as, “Arguably the world’s most popular politician.”

But during a press conference with Sarkozy, one French journalist asked the politically astute question: “Is it a good thing to be loved by the French in the United States?”

Obama replied by saying both countries have suffered from caricatures — America as unilateral and militaristic, and France as anti-American and soft on security, but that in actuality, “The average American has enormous fondness for the French people,” Obama said. “And I think people in France and people throughout Europe should not underestimate how much interest there is in America in seeing the transatlantic relationship improving.”

Obama’s trip to the Middle East and Europe was designed, in part, to give those who doubted his presidential capacity, particularly in matters of foreign affairs, a glimpse of the junior Senator from Illinois being, well, “presidential.”

And it seems to have worked.

A July 26th Gallup Poll suggests that Obama has actually widened his lead over Republican John McCain while in Europe. Obama’s current seven-point lead over McCain ties the widest since the start of Gallup Poll Daily tracking of the general election in early March. The one other time there was a seven point difference was immediately after Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign for the Democratic nomination in early June.

Let me make this clear, polling is not an exact science, and swings of a couple of points here or there really don’t mean that much. And certainly some portion of the widening gap is attributable to the extra media coverage the trip sparked.

But as the Barack Obama Summer World Tour winds up today in London, it is plain to see the presumptive Democratic nomminee’s rock-star appeal is not bound by the shores of the United States. And Americans have reacted to candidate Obama’s overseas trip quite favorably.

Is it possible that the blinders that kept so many Americans from seeing how the rest of the world actually perceives us are now revealing that they have some holes?

Related Posts:

• “Poll: Americans Don’t Think More Drilling Will Lower Gas Prices”
• “Obama’s New Ad Rejects Gas Tax Holliday”
• “New McCain TV Ad Blames Obama for High Gas Prices”

Image Credits: 1. Obama for President; 2. Gallup.

In fact, the poll finds, the public overwhelmingly believes (76% to 19%) that policymakers should focus on investing in new energy technologies including renewable fuels and more efficient vehicles rather than expanding exploration and drilling for more oil.

When asked the question: “Looking to the future, which one of the following do you think should be a more important priority for government: Investing in new energy technology including renewable fuels and more efficient automobiles, or expanding exploration and drilling for more oil?”, more than three-quarters of respondents favored new technology and renewables.

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Yes, this is a reader poll, and it is not a statistical representation of the public attitude of any country in particular. But it is striking that the 133 readers who did vote, were all doing so from a blog network called Green Options. Get it? Simply put, the public attitude towards nuclear power has undergone a seismic shift in recent years. This evidence indicates that this is not the same environmental movement that emerged in the early 1970’s.

But as consumed as I am with energy issues and the politics that surround them, I remain somewhat agnostic about nuclear power. Why is that? There’s no simple answer. Part of it is not wanting to reconcile the tensions between nuclear power as a low-carbon alternative with the ecological dangers of mining uranium and the big issue of transporting and storing nuclear waste. [If you want to know more about the specific dangers and problems facing nuclear power, Judith Lewis has written an excellent article in the most recent issue of Mother Jones addressing these issues in great depth.]

I would also argue that the reason I (and many other greens my age) are not particularly averse to nuclear power is because the pressing environmental issues that were building blocks to my own environmentalism were generally not related to nukes.

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Every two weeks, EcoWorldly writers put their heads together to report on a single issue as it’s happening all around the planet. We have writers on six continents, so these group topics are always a great way to learn more about environmental issues from many perspectives.

Now we want to give you a chance to choose topics that matter to you. What environmental issues would you like to know more about in countries all over the world? We want to bring you news and views about the issues that matter most to you.

Take our Interactive Poll of environmental issues.

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