Can We Make a Difference?: The Factors of Public Opinion in U.S. Environmental Policy

 The topography of America's environmental policy legislation is mountainous. Decisions, re-decisions, and rulings of overturned rulings of overturned rulings are common, and for those of us who are not politicians or judges, the question sometimes occurs: Are we making any difference at all? Sociologists and researchers have been asking the same questions since the 1970s, when the environmental policy of the United States government took a turn into prominence. What effect do normal, everyday people have on country's environmental decisions?

It would be nice to assume that each of us can make a difference with our own small efforts, but where is the proof? Actually, the proof lies in well known factors that help move the tides of environmental policy. Public opinion plays a role in several distinct and unquestionable ways, enabled in large part by America's democratic system and plain old passion. Yes, there is something YOU can do! Here are several examples of how personal actions have and will build up to affect the overall environmental policy of the United States, as shown by history and research:

Polls, one of the favorite tools of the politician—even if it is one of the most vague. Polls do not change how politicians think, but they do change which way government leaders lean and what policies or legislation they endorse. As statistics, public opinion polls can be interpreted in a variety of ways (it's an art as well as a science) but as simple results in the hands of politicians eager for election or re-election, such polls can make a lot of difference. The great thing is that public opinion results come from completely normal people like you and me—at least when taken correctly.

A good example of public opinion polls making a different is the policy changes made by the Obama administration when President Obama gained office. In its latter stages the Bush administration had made several environmental policy adjustments that allowed government agencies like the FBI to begin projects without feedback on their environmental impact. When President Obama replaced Bush, the polls indicated that his supporters wanted him to follow through on promises he had made during the campaign regarding environmental changes, so he repealed the Bush adjustments and reinstated the previous standards.