PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University environmental sociologist
Riley Dunlap will report on a national survey of public attitudes toward
environmental issues by the Gallup Organization. The lecture is set for Friday,
April 21, the day before Earth Day, on the WSU campus.
Dunlap, who served as an adviser for the poll that was conducted earlier this
month, is slated to give the talk “How Americans View the Environment and
Environmentalism: Results of Gallup’s National Earth Day 2000 Poll” at 3 p.m.
in Todd Hall, Room 133.
The 2000 survey focused on the American public’s perceptions of
environmental problems and public support for environmental protection.
Special attention was given to perceptions of the environmental movement, as
this year’s Earth Day marks the 30th anniversary of its founding. More than
1,000 people were interviewed for the survey.
Dunlap, who is WSU’s Boeing Distinguished Professor of Environmental
Sociology and the Gallup Organization’s Gallup Scholar in Environment,
directed the world’s most comprehensive environmental opinion survey in
1992 for The Gallup International Institute. The “Health of the Planet Survey”
covered 24 nations and its results were widely reported internationally.
Dunlap began studying environmentalism at the time of the first Earth Day in
1970, when he was a graduate student at the University of Oregon. He has
continued to make it the focus of his research throughout his career. He is
co-editor of the book “American Environmentalism” and has published
numerous works on the environmentalism. His bachelor’s degree is from San
Francisco State University and his master’s and doctoral degrees are from the
University of Oregon.
Dunlap joined the WSU faculty in 1972 and is professor of sociology and rural
sociology. He studies trends in public opinion toward environmental issues
and the nature of environmental concern and is co-developer of a widely used
measure of individuals’ ecological orientation, the “new environmental
paradigm scale.” He is also credited with being co-founder of the field of
Environmental Sociology and won a Distinguished Contribution Award from
the American Sociological Association in recognition of this accomplishment.
He is senior editor of the American Environmentalism and Public Reactions to
Nuclear Waste and has served on the editorial boards of eight journals. In
1999, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
The lecture is sponsored by WSU’s Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Policy
and Public Service, ASWSU, the Environmental Task Force and the
departments of sociology and rural sociology.
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