Support of federal programs may be waning
A Rutgers University researcher says public support for environmental protection in the United States as a federal government priority is declining.
Michael Greenberg, a professor and associate dean at the university's Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, says such support has substantially declined since 2001 according to results from recent Pew Research Center public opinion survey.
Greenberg also found that with the exception of wanting Washington to focus on job creation, the public is less interested in a range of governmental domestic priorities, including crime prevention and healthcare management.
He said his findings represent a notice that there must be aggressive attempts to explain to the public, news media and elected representatives that environmental protection and management are critically important to public health, job creation and economic development.
Greenberg's analysis of the annual national surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center was published recently in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
