Virginia goes green

Apr 17 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rex Springston Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va

Green is the new red, white and blue.

Support for the environment is widespread in Virginia and across the country, and that support is growing, experts say.

"Everybody's starting to be greener," said John W. Martin, CEO of the Southeastern Institute of Research, which does studies for businesses and others. The institute, based in Richmond, conducted a national survey of green attitudes in 2008.

"We were shocked to see 76 percent of Americans saying, 'I consider myself green,' or, 'I'm acting green,' " Martin said. "We went in thinking maybe half would be green."

In advance of Earth Day on Friday, The Times-Dispatch examined Virginians' environmental attitudes. But it can be tough to separate what people do for the cause from steps taken for other reasons.

For example, Richmond lawyer Tom Bowden bikes to his downtown office from his home near the University of Richmond because he enjoys the exercise and it saves money on gas. Bowden, a kayaker and bird photographer, doesn't bike to help the environment.

"It's on my mind, but it's not the principal motivating factor."

Many people see themselves as green -- "I don't think anybody gets up in the morning and thinks, 'How can I hurt the environment' " -- but are blind to the harm they do, Bowden said. "A lot of people would consider themselves environmentalists, but they've got to have the green lawn," he said.

A green lawn can be a problem for streams and the struggling Chesapeake Bay if you overdo the fertilizer, which can wash off and feed algae.

Most people do what's right for the environment "only when it's convenient," said Suzette Lyon of South Richmond.

Lyon decided 20 years ago to live in the city so she wouldn't contribute to suburban sprawl. "And people weren't even talking about it back then."

Lyon lives near Reedy Creek and works as a medical technologist at nearby Retreat Doctors' Hospital.

She rarely eats meat -- chicken maybe once a month -- in part because of the treatment of some farm animals. To save energy, Lyon has never owned a clothes dryer.

"I think they think I'm nuts," Lyon said of her co-workers. " 'She hangs her laundry outside?' "

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Children are a segment of the population who often are quick to go green.

"I would say if you ask the average fifth-grader if the environment is important, they can tell you, and sometimes in a very eloquent way, how important the environment is," said Rob Whitehead, a Henrico County fifth-grade teacher. "Unfortunately, if you talk to their parents, sometimes you get the absolute opposite."

The 2008 survey by Southeastern Institute of Research found green attitudes widespread but not unanimous. More than half of those questioned, for example, were willing to pay extra for products such as ecofriendly appliances.

However, the survey called 18 percent "faux green," or talking but not often acting green, and 22 percent were "brown," or skeptical of many environmental claims.

Martin, the institute's executive, thinks the recent recession caused many people to scale back consumption, opting for smaller cars, for example, in a lasting and green move he calls "the new frugality," or new fru.

"We think this really is a new trend," Martin said.

Others aren't so sure.

Buyers opted increasingly for more fuel-efficient cars during the recession, which bottomed out in mid-2009. In recent months, however, sales have shifted the other way, said George Hoffer, a University of Richmond transportation expert.

For example, light trucks -- a category that includes vans, pickups and sport utility vehicles -- climbed from 46.1 percent of all vehicles sold in the United States in the first two months of 2010 to 49.6 percent in the first two months of this year, Hoffer said. "Clearly, with vehicles, we are reverting back."

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Concern about the environment doesn't always create sufficient drive to solve its problems. The bay, for example, has stewed in its pollution for decades. Globally, experts say we are lagging in efforts to fight global warming.

Society is not doing more because think tanks, the media and political parties "are not in agreement that the environment is such a problem that we need to change our behavior," said Quentin Kidd, a Christopher Newport University political analyst.

Gallup polls show Americans' worries about the environment are declining. A 2010 poll showed that concerns about six of 10 measures, including water pollution and air pollution, were the lowest Gallup had measured.

Those who worry "a great deal" about pollution of rivers and lakes dropped from 72 percent of those polled in 1989 to 46 percent in 2010.

That declining concern "could be due in part to Americans' belief that environmental conditions in the U.S. are improving," Gallup said in a statement. "It also may reflect greater public concern about economic issues."

Still, surveys show that Virginians consistently rate the environment as important. A 2007 survey by SIR found that 78 percent of Richmond-area employees who were questioned said "protection of the environment" was important.

The environment came in fifth among the top-10 concerns, behind issues such as "quality education" -- 98 percent said it was important -- and personal safety (90 percent) and ahead of issues such as "affordable housing" (77 percent) and services for the aging (also 77 percent).

"Concern for the environment is not a top-tier issue, but it still makes the top-10 list and has a lot of people saying it's important to them," the institute's Martin said.

"People do care."

rspringston@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6453