Climate Change, Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, North America

ENVIRONMENT-US: Poll Finds Deep Concern Among Hispanics

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Apr 23 2008 (IPS) - Hispanic voters in the United States show a high degree of awareness and concern about environmental issues, particularly global warming, according to an unprecedented national survey on Latino opinion and the environment released here Wednesday by the Sierra Club.

The poll, which was conducted by Bendixen & Associates, found a strong willingness by the largest and fastest-growing ethnic community to take measures to curb energy use and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say contribute to climate change.

More than 80 percent of the 1,000 Hispannic voters interviewed in the poll said they recognised that energy usage had a substantial impact on their environment.

A comparable percentage said that energy and environmental issues have “a lot” (58 percent) or “some” (25 percent) impact on their quality of life and the health of their families.

Two-thirds of respondents nationwide said they were aware of toxic sites close to their home or place of work, such as a refinery, a chemical plant, a factory or an incinerator. Forty-two percent of respondents said they had personally suffered health concerns due to environmental problems where they lived, the most common of which was air pollution.

More than half (51 percent) identified polluted air and water as one of the two most important environmental problems they faced, while 43 percent cited energy and global warming.

“Energy and global warming is viewed as one of the two most important environmental problems for Hispanic families, and four-fifths of these voters consider it to be a major problem,” said Sergio Bendixen, the Florida-based firm’s president and CEO, who in recent years has become the most prominent pollster of U.S. Hispanics.

The survey, which was conducted during the last half of March, comes amid growing public concern about the global warming and its consequences and the political attitudes of Hispanic voters, widely considered a critical swing group in the presidential elections in November. More than 10 million Hispanic voters are expected to participate.

The Hispanic population currently makes up about 14 percent of the 300-million-plus U.S. citizens. Boosted by high immigration rates and higher-than-average family size, the Hispanic population is expected to grow to nearly 30 percent of the total U.S. population by 2050.

The survey interviewed 100 Hispanic voters in each of four states – Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico – with disproportionately large Hispanic populations, as well as 600 others from across the country. The interviews were conducted in both Spanish and English, depending on the respondent’s preference.

Of all the respondents, 54 percent were born on the U.S. mainland; seven percent in Puerto Rico, and 39 percent in Latin America. Mexican-born respondents were by far the most numerous of the foreign-born, comprising 22 percent of the total sample.

Forty percent of respondents had a high school education or less; 23 percent had some post-high school education; while 37 percent had at least a college degree. Sixty percent identified their political party affiliation as Democratic; only 15 percent said they were Republicans.

In terms of general attitudes, more than nine in 10 respondents said they agreed with the statement, “I have a moral responsibility to take care of the creations of God on this earth – the wilderness and forests, the oceans, the lakes and the rivers.”

On global warming, 61 percent said they had either received “a lot” (28 percent) or “some” (33 percent) information, although those respondents with at least a college degree and with higher household incomes were significantly more likely to have received more information.

More than four in 10 respondents (81 percent) said they considered energy and global warming to be a “major problem”, as opposed to a “minor problem”, or “not a problem”. Those respondents who preferred to be interviewed in Spanish were markedly more likely to identify it as a “major problem” than those who preferred English by a margin of 92 percent to 74 percent.

Similarly, those who preferred Spanish were also more likely to agree (85 percent to 72 percent) with the assertion that global warming “will bring about the melting of the polar ice caps and rising sea levels, (resulting)… in catastrophic flooding throughout coastal areas.”

Nine out of 10 respondents agreed with the proposition that their families could help global warming and pollution “by being more conscientious about conserving energy”. The most popular means of doing so, according to the survey, included buying more energy-efficient appliances (40 percent) and improving the fuel efficiency of their cars (31 percent).

Asked who was most responsible for the rising price of gasoline and oil, however, 49 percent of respondents named the government; 31 percent, the “big oil companies”, and only 12 percent cited “consumers like me”.

Several national Hispanic organisations last year launched a new coalition, the National Latino Coalition on Climate Change, to inform their community about climate change.

One of its promoters, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, who also serves as the chairman of the House of Representatives Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, praised the Sierra Club for conducting the poll.

“Both energy and climate change issues are rapidly developing into critical issues to both the American public and the global community,” he said. “This study reveals the communal concern for environmental issues held by Latino voters across the United States.”