Public Attitudes to the Environment in Scotland
Footnotes
1 Scottish Office (1991). Public Attitudes to the Environment in Scotland. Central Research Unit.
2 Other recent studies carried out to explore public attitudes to the environment include a DEFRA study which interviewed 3,700 adults in England in 2001 (DEFRA (2002) Public Attitudes to Quality of Life and the Environment), and work connected with the Scottish Executive's 'Do a little - Change a lot' communications exercise (NFO System 3 (2003) Survey on Environmental Issues in Scotland, Scottish Executive ( www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/surveyenv02.pdf )). The Scottish Executive has also undertaken surveys on Public Attitudes to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in Scotland (Waste Aware Scotland (2002), www.wascot.org.uk ) and Public Attitudes to Wind Farms in Scotland (forthcoming). On occasion during this report, comparisons are drawn with these studies although differences in methodologies and content limit opportunities for doing this.
3 Hinds, K., Carmichael, K and Snowling, H. (2002) Public Attitudes to the Environment in Scotland 2002. Social Research Findings No. 24/2002, Scottish Executive - National Statistics.
4 The UK data archive is located at the University of Essex ( www.data-archive.ac.uk ).
5 "Scottish MOSAIC is a neighbourhood classification system developed by Experian. It draws on a large number of Census variables, augmented by some published non-Census information, to generate a way of discriminating between postcodes in terms of housing and population types, and densities" (Hope, S. (2002) Scotland's People: results from the 2001 Scottish Household Survey. Volume 6: Technical Report, Scottish Executive - National Statistics).
6 The full range of situations in which a substitution of addresses could be made were: a business address, address could not be located, address empty, demolished, a non-main residence (second home) or an institution.
7 Data supplied by Business Geographics.
8 343 issued addresses were found to be invalid but were replaced with valid addresses. The remaining invalid addresses could not be replaced
9 Demonstrating the relationship between tenure type and income, the 1999 Scottish Household Survey found that while 70% of social renters had an annual income below 10,000 per year, 70% of people buying their home on a mortgage had an income above this level (Hope et al (2000) Scotland's People: Results from the 1999 Scottish Household Survey. Scottish Executive).
10 Regression is often undertaken to support a claim that the phenomena measured by the independent variables cause the phenomenon measured by the dependent variable. However, the causal ordering, if any, between the variables cannot be verified or falsified by the technique. Causality can only be inferred through special experimental designs or through assumptions made by the analyst.
11 Bryman, A. and Cramer, D. (1997) Quantitative Data Analysis, London, Routledge.
12 The definition of family type is as follows:
single adult household - one adult of non-pensionable age and no children
small adult household - 2 adults of non-pensionable age and no children
large adult household - 3 or more adults and no children
single parent household - one adult of any age and one or more children
family household - 2 or more adults of any age and one or more children
pensioner household - household containing one or more adults of pensionable age and no children.
13 Scottish Office (1991) Public Attitudes to the Environment in Scotland, Central Research Unit.
14 In considering levels of concern for these environmental issues it is important to recognise that this measure cannot tell us how informed people were about each issue. For example, we do not know whether 49% of people think that sewage is dumped in the sea and is, therefore, an existing problem or whether they believe it would be concerning if it were to be placed there. In fact, the dumping of sewage sludge ceased in 1998.
15 These issues were selected following initial qualitative fieldwork and from the list of issues given in a 1989 survey by the Department of the Environment.
16 The apparent decline in total levels of concern between 1991 and 2002 is somewhat difficult to explain. In some cases it may reflect an improvement in the environmental issue about which people were asked to express concern, whereas in other cases it may indicate that public concern has waned. It is worth noting that since the 1991 and 2002 surveys were carried out using different sampling strategies, the 1991 sample of 1,000 people might have comprised more individuals who had a particular interest in the environment.
17 DEFRA (2002) Survey of public attitudes to quality of life and to the environment - 2001. Defra publications.
18 When asked how worried they personally felt about each one of twenty environmental issues, two thirds of people in the DEFRA survey said they were very worried about 'disposal of hazardous waste' (66%), and over half said they were very worried about 'effects of livestock methods (including BSE)' (58%), 'pollution in rivers' (55%), 'pollution in bathing waters and beaches' (52%) and 'traffic exhaust fumes' (52%). Although absolute levels of concern appear higher in the DEFRA survey, no direct comparison between the two surveys can be made due to different question wording.
19 Respondents were shown photographs of four different types of woodland, and description of the management method appeared above each. See Appendix C.
20 Forestry Commission (2000) Forests for Scotland, The Scottish Forestry Strategy. FC, Edinburgh ( http://www.forestry.gov.uk ).
21 Climate Change Scenarios for the United Kingdom, UK Climate Impacts Programme, April 2002 ( www.ukcip.org.uk/scenarios).
22 The most commonly selected factor in the DEFRA survey was 'destruction of forests' (74%) and 'carbon dioxide' was selected by 71% of people answering the survey.
23 www.scotland.gov.uk/climatechange contains further information on climate change.
24 Comparisons between these studies are hampered by the fact that the 1991 survey did not give respondents the option of answering 'don't know' to the two water quality questions, while the 2002 survey did.
25 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/envonline
26 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/envonline
27 Scottish Executive (2002) Social Justice . . . a Scotland where everyone matters: Annual Report 2002. Scottish Executive.
28 Further exploration of nuclear-related issues in Scotland is given in Chapters 5 and 6 .
29 No chart shown for 'Nuclear waste processing plant' (see Table 2.22).
30 World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future. Oxford; p7.
31 Questions on sustainable development were asked of half the sample only. Certain other questions reported in this chapter were asked of the whole sample, hence the total sample sizes given in tables will vary.
32 Three coders working in the field of sustainable development independently coded the responses and resolved differences of opinions between themselves. However due to the nature of sustainable development it is highly possible that different coders would classify some responses differently. The findings should thus be treated with caution, but give a flavour of the public understanding of the term.
33 A large number of definitions related sustainable development to forestry practices and this may relate to the fact that the preceding question was about forestry (the full questionnaire is shown in Appendix A). However it is also likely that many people will have seen sustainable woodland management referred to on wood and paper products, and thus associate sustainable development with this.
34 Respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement 'most people in Scotland today need to change their way of life so that future generations can continue to enjoy a good quality of life and environment'.
35 Section 1.2.2 provides more details on logistic regression. Variables included in the model were age, sex, family type, tenure and highest educational qualification.
36 Those least likely to agree that they needed to change their lifestyles were older people, those with no qualifications, men, single adults and pensioners. It is interesting that sex emerged as significant from the regression analysis as this did not have a notable relationship with this attitude before the effects of other variables were controlled for (as shown in Table 3.4).
37 www.dochange.net
38 The question did not ask whether respondents undertook these savings specifically to benefit the environment since it can be difficult for people to disentangle this motivation from other benefits such as saving money.
39 This question simply asked 'do you buy any of the following 'environmentally friendly' products rather than alternatives which are not environmentally friendly?' No time-frame was given and people were not asked how frequently they bought environmentally friendly products.
40 Both logos have very similar meanings, thus it was not necessary to give separate options for each.
41 Potentially there are many different ways of combining the various questions. The measure used was derived simply by adding together the number of actions undertaken and splitting the resulting distribution into four roughly equal groups. Scores ranged from 0 to 23. No activities were weighted as more important than others.
42 Totals in this table differ slightly from those in Tables 3.22-3.23 because these figures are based on the half of respondents for which the information on people needing to change their way of life are available. The other tables are based on responses from the entire survey sample.
43 In 2000-01, 92% of household waste went to landfill sites, with 6% recycled and 2% used for recovery of heat, power or other energy sources (Accounts Commission Performance Indicators 2000-01, Environment and Regulatory Services)
44 Tied in with this, one of Scotland's 'Sustainable Development Indicators' set out in the report, Meeting the needs . . . a Scotland where everyone matters (Scottish Executive, 2002) is to reduce waste arisings by 1% per annum.
45 SWAG undertook a recent survey specifically looking at waste and recycling in order to inform their strategy for action Public Attitudes to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in Scotland (Waste Aware Scotland (2002), www.wascot.org.uk). A 'Waste Aware Scotland' campaign is being developed by SWAG and will commence in 2003.
46 The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is a UK-wide programme established to promote sustainable waste management and to create stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products. It is concerned with four material streams: paper, plastic, glass and wood.
47 Landfill Directive (99/31/EC) which requires a reduction in the amount of biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill as well as restricting some other types of waste from landfill sites.
48 For each material people were classified as having 'home collection' or 'no way to do this' based on their responses at the question which was specific to each material. For those who said they took a particular material to a recycling bank, the distance to this bank was taken from the response to the second question, which was not material-specific.
49 For each material two logistic regression models were run: one comparing respondents with facilities within 10 minutes of their home (including home collection) and those with no facilities or facilities further afield and one comparing those with facilities within 20 minutes of their home and those with no facilities or facilities further afield. For each material except plastic, the two models produced the same results. For plastic, the model based on facilities within 10 minutes found urban or rural location, age and tenure to be significant while the model based on facilities within 20 minutes found urban or rural location, car availability and age to be significant. For more information about logistic regression analysis see Section 1.3.2
50 No information was collected on the nature of the home-collection services available - for example how regular they were and how long they had been established.
51 Logistic regression is discussed in Section 1.3.2
52 The variables included in the model were: age, sex, highest educational qualification, urban or rural location, tenure type, car availability and access to recycling facilities.
53 Scottish Executive (2002) Meeting the needs . . . a Scotland where everyone matters (Scottish Executive)
54 Water Services Unit (2002) Drinking Water Quality in Scotland 2001, Scottish Executive Environment & Rural Affairs Department.
55 The survey did not explore the reasons why people tend not to drink tap water when away from home. Reasons are likely to include having bottled water provided at work and finding bottled water more convenient when travelling, as well as choosing to avoid tap water.
56 Scottish Environment Statistics Online for 2002 ( www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/envonline ).
57 Scottish Executive publication "Securing and Renewable Future" March 2003
58 This requires public electricity suppliers to contract at least some of their generating capacity from renewable sources, in order to give renewables 'a foothold in the market'. The Scottish Renewables Obligation was announced in 1997 and the level of the requirement was increased in 1999 (Hansard 24th February 1999). Since April 2001 the Renewables Obligation Scotland has been in operation.
59 Assessing the relative costs of different forms of electricity production is very complicated and contentious. Issues arise to do with the difficulties of calculating capital and depreciation costs of different plants. Operating costs are generally easier to quantify. Milborrow (2001) estimated that wind power in the UK is cheaper than nuclear power. The OECD (1998) found that gas-fired generation is often the cheapest option in a comparison of coal, gas and nuclear generation.
Milborrow, D. (2001), Working paper on penalties for intermittent sources of energy -http://www.piu.gov.uk/2002/energy/report/working%20papers/Milborrow.pdf
OECD (1998) Results from the OECD Report on International Projection of Electricity Generating Costs (cited in Proceedings of International Joint Power Generation Conference and Exhibition 24-26 August 1998, Balitmore, MD)
60 Uranium used in generation of electricity by nuclear power IS a finite natural resource, yet it is not currently perceived to be in danger of running out.
61 Nuclear power generation does not produce carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas associated with power generation, although it does produce water vapour.
62 In this analysis a wind farm is classified as having 9 or more turbines.
63 For more information on this process, the relevant publications can be found at the following Internet addresses: Original UK consultation (September 2001) - http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/consult/radwaste/default.htm, Summary of responses (July 2002) - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/environment/mrwsr-00.asp, Scottish Council Foundation Report for the SE on Public Engagement (July 2002) - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/kd01/lightgreen/mrws-00.asp, Summary of Scottish Council Foundation Report for the SE on Public Engagement (July 2002) - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/resfinds/erf20-00.asp, Summary of Findings of a telephone survey for the SE on radioactive waste (July 2002) - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/cru/resfinds/erf21-00.asp
64 For more information on the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, see CoRWM's website: http://www.dti.gov.uk/nuclearcleeanup/nda.htm
65 This question made no reference to England and Wales although the preceding two questions asking whether people thought waste was imported to Scotland from other countries and sent from Scotland to other countries included England and Wales specifically.
66 More information can be found on the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority pages of the Department of trade and Industry's website: http://www.dti.gov.uk/nuclearcleanup/nda.htm
67 137 Special Protection Areas in Scotland have been classified in line with the EC Birds Directive, and there are a further 230 candidate Special Areas of Conservation under the EC Habitats Directive. Together these Natura 2000 sites cover approximately 10% of Scotland's land surface. In addition to this protected land area, there are 32 marine Natura 2000 sites across Scotland covering in the region of 300,000 hectares.
68 A fuller description of logistic regression is given in Section 1.3.2. All those who were 'frequent users of the countryside for active pursuits' or 'frequent walkers in the countryside' were classified as 'frequent countryside users' for this analysis. The variables included in this model were: age, sex, highest educational qualification, tenure type, number of cars available to household, urban or rural location and countryside user type.
69 A fuller description of logistic regression is given in Section 1.2.2. The variables included in this model were: age, sex, highest educational qualification, tenure, urban or rural location and countryside user type.
70 Some comparison can be made with the 1991 survey which asked respondents to select the one thing they thought represented the greatest threat to the countryside (the list was similar to that used in 2002 but not identical). In 1991 a quarter of people thought 'industrial smoke and fumes' was the greatest threat, which was also the most commonly selected answer in the 2002 survey along with new developments in the countryside. However, this second issue was not perceived to be quite as significant in 1991, when the equivalent categories of 'urban growth and housing development' and 'motorways and road building' were the 5th and 6th ranked threats respectively. In 1991, 'use of chemicals and pesticides in farming' was viewed as the second greatest threat to the countryside (selected by 19%).