CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS REGARDING ENVIRONMENTAL RECOGNITION AND ATTITUDE
5.2 R ECOGNITION OF E NVIRONMENTAL I SSUES
People’s recognition of the severity of environmental issues supplies the informational base to the formation of people’s attitudes and behaviour commitments. In this section, people’s opinions regarding the severity of the environmental problems and the importance of the environment are analysed. In the survey, respondents were asked to identify the most serious environmental problems among several environmental issues at different levels, from a national to local level in rural areas, and from a global to national level in urban areas. And they were also asked to choose the things they thought the government should most strongly focus on,
from environmental issues and other issues, including economy, education/culture, medical care/welfare and public safety.
For the severity of the environmental problems, respondents in rural areas were asked to choose the most serious environmental problem from given choices for the whole country and the local area, respectively. And respondents in urban areas were asked to choose the most serious environmental problem on a global and national scale. The specific question items and responses are shown in Table 5-1.
Table 5-1 People’s opinions regarding the most serious environmental problem
Question Answer Response (%)
1. Air pollution 53.9
2. Water pollution 15.4
3. Decline in forest and vegetation 0.9
4. Degradation of food safety 7.5
5. Increase in the volume of garbage from home 16.4 6. Increase in the volume of toxic waste 5.5
7. Land pollution 0.4
1. Air pollution 20.0
2. Water pollution 29.0
3. Decline in forest and vegetation 3.0
4. Degradation of food safety 5.1
5. Increase in the volume of garbage from home 37.2 6. Increase in the volume of toxic waste 3.7
7. Land pollution 2.1
1. Destruction of ozone layers 15.0
2. Acid rain 0.6
3. Global warming 38.4
4. Destruction of the forests 9.5
5. Decline in biodiversity 7.9
6. Marine pollution 7.3
7. Transboundary spread of toxic waste 16.8
8.Desertification 4.4
1. Air pollution 32.4
2. Water pollution 11.3
3. Decline in forest and vegetation 7.1
4. Degradation of food safety 35.9
5. Increase in the volume of garbage from home 4.8 6. Increase in the volume of toxic waste 8.5
1. Destruction of ozone layers 11.4
2. Acid rain 5.7
3. Global warming 49.2
4. Destruction of the forests 11.8
5. Decline in biodiversity 5.2
6. Marine pollution 5.3
7. Transboundary spread of toxic waste 10.0
8.Desertification 1.4
1. Air pollution 34.1
2. Water pollution 16.0
3. Decline in forest and vegetation 9.3
4. Degradation of food safety 29.2
5. Increase in the volume of garbage from home 5.5 6. Increase in the volume of toxic waste 5.9 Hangzhou
Urban area 51 villages Rural area
a. In thinkging about the world as a whole, these days which one of the following do you think is the most serious evnironmental problem
b. In thinkging about the China as a whole, these days which one of the following do you think is the most serious evnironmental problem
a. In thinkging about the world as a whole, these days which one of the following do you think is the most serious evnironmental problem
b. In thinkging about the China as a whole, these days which one of the following do you think is the most serious evnironmental problem
a. Taking China as a whole, which one of the following do you think is the most serious environmental problem currently?
b. Taking the village you are living as whole, which one of the following do you think is the most serious
environmental problem currently
Beijing
From Table 5-1, 53.9% of the respondents in rural areas believe the most serious problem in China as a whole is air pollution, followed by household waste (16.4%) and water pollution (15.4%). However, the percentages for these top three issues are quite different, by the fact that air pollution gets the strongest attention. While taking the village as a whole, the attention in rural areas is paid to the household waste issue (37.2%), water pollution (29%), and air pollution (20%). In rural areas, it is noted that, the severity of the household waste issue has been very obvious and has already surpassed the traditional pollutions, such as water and air pollution, and has become the residents’ most concerning issue.
In Beijing, 38.4% of the respondents think global warming is the most serious problem on the global level, and then the transboundary spread of toxic waste (16.8%) and destruction of ozone layers issues (15%). In Hangzhou, similar to Beijing, 49.2% of the respondents believe global warming is the most serious problem on global level, and destruction of the forests (11.8%) and destruction of ozone layers (11.4%) also get considerable attention. As for a domestic level, 35.9% of the respondents in Beijing believe the food safety issue is the most serious environmental issue, while 32.4% of the respondents think air pollution is in the greates emergency. In Hangzhou, 34.1% of the respondents believe air pollution is the most serious problem, and 29.2% of them think food safety is the most serious issue. It is noted that, in both the two cities we surveyed, air pollution and food safety issues aroused people more attention and are deemed as the most serious problems in present-day China.
As a brief summary of the above analysis, rural residents believe air pollution, household waste and water pollution in overall China, and household waste, water pollution and air pollution in the local area are the most serious environmental problems. Among these issues, air pollution at the national level and household waste at the local level get more attention in rural areas. Urban residents believe that the most serious problem is global warming at the global
level, while air pollution and food safety issues are the most serious environmental problems at the domestic level.
Above are people’s most concerned issues among several typical environmental problems.
However, compared to other issues, such as education/culture and medical care/welfare, to which extent people are concerned with the environmental issue, is the next problem this study to focus. In order to clarify people’s attitudes on environmental issues and other issues, people’s opinions the on the governments’ most important thing are investigated. The questions and the responses to these questions are shown in Table 5-2.
Table 5-2 People’s opinions regarding the most important thing for governments
Question Answer Response (%)
1. The economy 17.0
2. Education/Culture 31.3
3. Medical care/Welfare 33.1
4. Environment 15.5
5. Public safety 3.1
1. The economy 15.7
2. Education/Culture 27.4
3. Medical care/Welfare 30.7
4. Environment 19.4
5. Public safety 6.7
1. The economy 17.5
2. Education/Culture 35.9
3. Medical care/Welfare 31.6
4. Environment 11.2
5. Public safety 3.9
1. The economy 13.1
2. Education/Culture 23.4
3. Medical care/Welfare 31.3
4. Environment 18.9
5. Public safety 13.2
1. The economy 22.6
2. Education/Culture 29.8
3. Medical care/Welfare 31.1
4. Environment 14.4
5. Public safety 2.0
1. The economy 18.0
2. Education/Culture 22.1
3. Medical care/Welfare 37.1
4. Environment 18.2
5. Public safety 4.6
51 villages
Beijing
Hangzhou Urban
area
a. In our country, what kind of things do you think should the
government first strongly focus on?
b. Then, what kind of things do you think sould the government second strongly focus on?
a. In our country, what kind of things do you think should the national government most
strongly focus on?
b.Then, what kind of things do you think should the local municipalities focus on most strongly?
a. In our country, what kind of things do you think should the national government most
strongly focus on?
b.Then, what kind of things do you think should the local municipalities focus on most strongly?
Rural area
In rural areas, respondents were asked to choose the things that the government should first and second strongly focus on among economy, education/culture, medical care/welfare, environment and public safety. In Beijing and Hangzhou, respondents were asked to choose the things that the national government and local government should most strongly focus on among economy, education/culture, medical care/welfare, environment and public safety. In rural areas, the first two things respondents said the government should focus on are medical care/welfare (33.1%) and education/culture (31.3%). The following things are economy (17%) and environment (15.5%). The second things government should focus on are also medical care/welfare (30.7%) and education/culture (27.4%). However, the following things are firstly environment (19.4%) and then economy (15.7%). In the urban area similar results were obtained.
The most important things that national government should most strongly focus on are education/culture (35.9% in Beijing, 29.8% in Hangzhou) and medical care/welfare (31.6% in Beijing and 29.8% in Hangzhou). Then the following things are economy (17.5% in Beijing and 31.1% in Hangzhou) and then environment (11.2% in Beijing and 14.4% in Hangzhou). For the local municipalities, the most important things are also medical care/welfare (31.3% in Beijing and 37.1% in Hangzhou) and education/culture (23.4% in Beijing and 22.1% in Hangzhou).
Then the following thing is the environment (18.9% in Beijing and 18.2% in Hangzhou).
As a brief summary of people’s opinions regarding the most important thing that national or local government should strongly focus on, although the measurements in rural and urban areas are different, similar results are derived. The top two things for both rural and urban areas are medical care/welfare and education/culture, followed by the economy and the environment. It is also noted that although it is not obvious, the importance of the economy is more recognized than that of the environment in the present-day China. The above analysis showed that the severity of environmental issues have aroused different attentions in China. However, compared to medical
care/welfare and education/culture, and even to the economy, the importance of the environment in both rural and urban China still lowly recognized.