Full Description
Knowledge of public attitudes and values is essential to the formulation and implementation of government policies affecting energy and other natural resources, but it is difficult to obtain and use this knowledge, for the pertinent issues are complex and involve such difficult-to-define concepts as degree of acceptable risk for both present and future generations. Recently, survey researchers have attempted to measure and explain public attitudes related to energy and resource conservation. This volume examines what policymakers need to or would like to know about these attitudes, what kinds of results the researchers have been able to obtain, and the extent to which their results currently influence the policymaking process.
Contents
Introduction and Overview -- Concepts, Issues, and Methodological Problems -- Surveys: What They Can and Cannot Tell Energy Policymakers -- Poorly Thought-Out Values: Problems of Measurement -- A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Public Attitudes Toward Conservation and Energy Issues -- Empirical Studies -- Supply Versus Demand Energy Alternatives: Public Attitudes Toward Resource Conservation -- Risk Research and Its Relevance to Energy Planning -- Attitudes Toward the Future: Their Impact on Present Decisions -- Human Values and Pro-Environmental Behavior -- The Influence of Human Values on Conservation and Energy Shortage Beliefs -- The Use of Research Results by Policymakers -- Public Attitudes and Resource Conservation Policies -- The Use of Energy Survey Data in the Policy Process
