70% of Americans think the environment is more important than economic growth

© Beautiful landscape/Shutterstock Turns out, sustainability isn’t about awareness. People get it. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think about sustainability and get depressed. So much needs to be done, but people keep destroying the environment at record speed. So I was surprised when I recently learned something so blindingly positive, I couldn’t even be cynical about it. A few weeks ago, Yale conducted its annual climate opinion map . The researchers found that 70 percent of Americans think environmental protection is more important than economic growth. !!! For whatever reason — media, politicians, the way people talk — I’ve assumed that half the country or more either doesn’t understand environmental problems or doesn’t care. Sure, I may live in a bubble of composting freaks, but plenty of people think waste isn’t destructive, climate change isn’t real, pollution isn’t a problem and who needs tigers anyway? But according to this study, none of that’s true. For instance: – 85 percent of Americans support funding research into renewable energy. – 70 percent think climate change is real. And if you look at the map, it’s a majority in just about every state, including the Deep South. The same […]

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