EDITORIAL PAGE — Environmental survey signals shift in perspectives

Each year, thousands of idealistic young people, together with aging doom-and-gloomers, knock on doors to raise funds for environmental groups such as Greenpeace.

Lately, however, canvassers are encountering tighter wallets and a public less susceptible to the usual dire warnings about looming environmental disasters.

A recent study on the public’s environmental attitudes, conducted by the Angus Reid group, found that although one in 20 Canadians continues to cite the environment as “important,” concern over its vulverability has been replaced by the more pressing issues of economic renewal and job creation.

The survey, based on interviews with a random sample of 1,013 individuals across the country, found that Canadians are now significantly less likely to contribute time or money to environmental causes than they were four years ago.

For example, 48% of respondents gave money to a health or medical cause last year, compared with only 22% who contributed to an environmental or wildlife protection organization. And the size of contributions is also dwindling. Almost half of those surveyed said they donated less than $100 to environmental causes over the past year.

Environmental groups are finding that it is no longer enough to sound the alarm bell about this or that endangered species or “last-remaining” wilderness. Canadians want to know what course of action environmental groups are taking to protect the environment, and what the ramifications are. In short, they want to know how their money will be spent.

Too often, donations are being used solely to finance public awareness campaigns to “save” either wilderness or endangered species. Little is ever accomplished in terms of on-the-ground programs.

Significantly, those surveyed gave higher marks to Ducks Unlimited (which commissioned the study) for its co-operative approach to preserving and restoring wetlands than to Greenpeace, which has the higher (and more notorious) public profile.

These and other findings suggest that the pendulum may be swinging towards a more sensible and pragmatic approach to environmental protection and resource development. Indeed, this may well be the opportune time for the mining industry to make its case that resource development can be carried out in a manner that is responsible and does not compromise society’s environmental goals.

This seeming shift in public attitude towards the environment/industry relationship may result in better land-use decisions and more openness to the concept of multiple land use.

However, before it can persuade the world that resource development and environmental protection can go hand-in-hand, the mining industry needs to strengthen its grassroots alliance with union leaders, native Canadians and local community groups.

Co-operation, rather than confrontation, will be the operative word in building such an alliance.