Study: Self-Identifying American Christians Care Even Less About The Environment Than Thought

Last edited Sat Jan 13, 2018, 11:56 AM - Edit history (1)

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The highest profile example came in 2015 when Pope Francis released his encyclical letter on the environment, which elevated climate change, and stewardship of the environment more generally, as issues central to the Catholic Church's teaching and mission. In the United States, efforts include several initiatives led by Evangelical Protestant groups, such as the Evangelical Environmental Network.

These developments, however, contradict arguments made by Lynn White and extensive social science research—including my most recent work. In a study recently published in the journal Environmental Politics, I analyzed nearly 20 years of public opinion data collected by Gallup to evaluate whether Christians express higher levels of concern about the environment over time. In short, the answer to this question is decidedly no. The evidence suggests that Christians in the United States have become less concerned about the environment over the past two decades.

I studied Christians' responses to multiple questions pertaining to the environment that have been regularly asked by Gallup, including how people prioritize between environmental protection and economic development and energy production, levels of concern about environmental quality generally, and levels of worry about pollution (air, water, and toxic waste) and global warming specifically, and attitudes toward the environmental movement.

The figures below shows the likelihood that a self-identifying Christian responded to the Gallup survey questions with the most "pro-environmental" answer for four of the measures. (The comparison is between Christians and individuals that identify as atheists, agnostics, or have no religious affiliation, controlling for other factors such as political beliefs and demographic characteristics.) Protestants, Catholics, and other Christian denominations all exhibit less worry about the environment over the time period studied—and do not differ depending on an individual's level of church attendance.

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http://www.dailyclimate.org/christians-care-environmental-climate-change-2524249177.html