In July 2008 (more or less), I conducted a survey about the top issues in the Great Lakes Country - the watershed of the Great Lakes. The results are provided in the file below in text (as published in December 2008). You can easily comment on the results in the "Survey Forum" at the bottom of the page.
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A PUBLIC SURVEY OF THE TOP TEN ISSUES IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION
December 29, 2008
Executive Summary It is an understatement to say that there is a panoply of daunting issues confronting the Great Lakes region and its inhabitants. This is true in particular for environmental issues, in large part because the Great Lakes region is a world treasure.
I wanted to get a taste for what people thought were the most important issues (and how exactly they labeled the issues), and so I invited the readers of The Great Lakes Country’s weekly email to respond to an open-ended survey. After the initial responses arrived, I opened the invitation more broadly and received a lot of great input from forty-four (44) people total.
Many answers were framed differently, and it took a lot of effort to try to match terminology and group disparate answers together (or not), based on my own imperfect understanding of the issues. But I did the best I could, with the understanding that the that the results could change if someone else to classify the responses.
Regardless of who grouped the answers, however, the top issue was unquestionably “invasive species.” This could mean both addressing the harms caused by invasive species already within the Great Lakes watershed and/or preventing other invasive species (e.g., Asian carp) from entering the watershed. Indeed, invasive species are the top issue for most demographic categories as well as for the group as a whole, except for three notable exceptions: (1) the participating journalists are of the view that climate change is an equal or greater issue for the region (just narrowly topping invasive species); (2) the participating Canadians also thought climate change is the top issue (which is fitting because Ontario is now in the process of closing its coal plants); and (3) the participating women believe that controlling water in the Great Lakes region (e.g., regulating diversions and/or bottling water) is the top issue.
In general, the three issues already specified -- i.e., invasive species, climate change, and water control -- were the top three issues across the board, reshuffled a bit depending on the exact demographic. Other top issues included sewage overflows, loss of habitat and sprawl (two sides of the same coin?), cleaning up historical pollution, water levels, and algae/muck.
It is just as interesting, however, to note what was absent from the list. In general, specific energy issues (e.g., coal v. nuclear v. wind) did not dent the standings. Similarly, big industry -- e.g., mining, refineries, steel plants, or big farms -- did not have much of a direct impact on the standings. For both of these topics, I suspect that part of the reason is due to the structure (or lack thereof) in the survey, so that responses on these themes may have come in many shapes and sizes.
Overall, the biggest trend I have detected is that issues with unknown harms -- and in particular, unknown harms that could be catastrophic -- are the top issues. For invasive species, will a new species enter the Great Lakes tomorrow? If so, will the impact be catastrophic? And what if the Great Lakes Compact was not passed? Would the lakes have been sold tomorrow by states strapped for cash? On the other hand, pollution from industrial sources - regardless of how severe it may be - is relatively easier to quantify. And I suspect that may be why invasive species, climate change and water control were the top three issues, whereas other issues lagged behind.
Instructions to the Participants These were the instructions that were posted on the website and emailed to likely participants.
“We are conducting a survey of readers about the top issues in the Great Lakes Country - the watershed of the Great Lakes. I do not want to put any limitations on this inquiry. We are looking for positive developments; negative developments; acts or omissions; environmental regulation, economic development, or something completely different; issues that are traditionally seen as environmental issues, and those that may not be. We have an impressive cast of readers ranging from many walks of life and many perspectives on issues affecting the Great Lakes Country, and so I do not want to limit the scope of this project.
Please provide your input, and at the end of July, I will prepare a summary of the responses we receive. At this point, I am hoping to compare the responses of all people with the responses of journalists who cover the Great Lakes on a regular basis to see if any interesting differences emerge.
All input will be kept anonymous. In other words, no responses will be attributed to specific people, and I won't list all the participants. Only responses will be released.”
Obviously, I was not able to provide a report by the end of July, but instead it took until the end of 2008. Because the survey was open-ended, I had a lot of discretion in grouping answers together (or not). This made it difficult, and if I did this again, I would prepare a list of answers that respondents could select. Nonetheless, for this initial survey, it was worthwhile to have all answers unscripted.
Participants Forty-four (44) people responded to the survey invitation. Many provided an abbreviated list of issues and did not identify ten total. Some even merely submitted a response identifying his or her own top issue.
When submitting a response, I asked people to submit their name and email address, their city and state/province, and to identify whether or not they were a journalist. My intention regarding the question identifying journalists was to see if journalists, who cover environmental issues on a regular basis in the Great Lakes watershed, would see the issues differently from others, who may or may not spend as much time on environmental issues (or in considering as wide a range of environmental issues).
People from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York, and Maryland submitted responses. More than 50% of the responses were from Michigan, and only 3 of the responses were from Ontario.
Approximately three-fourths of the responses were submitted by non-journalists. However, seven journalists were brave enough to respond (many more were sent personal invitations). At least one journalist from each Great Lake region submitted a response.
Although people did not identify themselves per se as male or female, I was able to do so (in some cases making assumptions based on names). Approximately two-thirds of the responses were from men, and one-third from women.
The Top Ten Issues - All Participants These were the top issues for everyone. Water control was boosted by the movement over the summer to pass the Great Lakes Compact, but that was still not enough to overcome invasive species.
1. Invasive Species (262) 2. Water Control (224) 3. Climate Change (153) 4 . Clean Water & Pollution (123) 5. Addressing Historical Pollution (84) 6. Sewage in Storm Water Runoff (83) 7. Loss of Habitat (77) 8. Sprawl (71) 9. Water levels (53) 10. Algae, Muck, etc. (47)
The Top Five Issues - Journalists Here are the top 10 issues from the seven journalists who participated. They live across the region, and there is at least one who lives near each of the Great Lakes. It is a noticeably different top 10 list from the group as a whole.
1. Climate Change (64) 2. Invasive Species (63) 3. Water Control (53) 4. Sprawl (22) 5. Water Levels (18)
The Top Ten Issues - Non-Journalists These are interesting because climate change is quite down the list, and water levels in general are off the list.
1. Invasive Species (199) 2. Water Control (171) 3. Clean Water & Pollution (120) 4. Climate Change (91) 5. Addressing Historical Pollution (79) 6. Sewage in Storm Water Runoff (74) 7. Loss of Habitat (65) 8. Sprawl (49) 9. Algae, Muck, etc. (47) 10. Bio-accumulative Toxins (36)
The Top Ten Issues - Michigan Nearly two-thirds of the responses were from Michiganians. I note that clean water in general is a top 3 issue in Michigan, unlike the population of a hole (whereas climate change is lower down the list).
1. Invasive Species (140) 2. Water Control (127) 3. Clean Water & Pollution (101) 4. Climate Change (84) 5. Addressing Historical Pollution (58) 6. Sprawl (48) 7. Sewage in Storm Water (47) 8 Loss of Habitat (40) 9. Water Levels (35) 10. International & Regional Cooperation/Algae, Muck, etc. (29) (tie)
The Top Five Issues - Ontario Only three people from Ontario submitted survey responses, but I thought it was worth breaking them out because the Ontarioans were the only people to identify nuclear energy and its risks as a top issue in the region. Not one American even mentioned it. Also, given that Ontario is closing all coal-fired power plants, it is interesting that climate change is the top overall issue, in place of invasive species.
1. Climate Change (18) 2. Bioaccumlative Toxins (17) 3. Water Control (16) 4. Invasive Species (16) 5. Nuclear waste and risk (12)
The Top Five Issues - Other Than Michigan or Ontario People from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, New York, and Maryland submitted survey responses. (There were no responses from people in Indiana or Pennsylvania.)
1. Invasive Species (106) 2. Water Control (81) 3. Climate Change (53) 4. Loss of Habitat (34) 5. Sewage in Storm Water Runoff (30)
The Top Ten Issues - Men Men have sprawl has a top five issue, but women have loss of habitat as the fifth highest issue. I was tempted to combine the two into one category, but ultimately I thought these different labels may have a very important difference, even if I cannot exactly identify it.
1. Invasive Species (173) 2. Water Control (113) 3. Clean Water & Pollution (105) 4. Climate Change (88) 5. Sprawl (61) 6. Sewage in Storm Water Runoff (60) 7. Water levels (40) 8. Algae, Muck, etc. (28) 9. Addressing Historical Pollution (25) 10. Loss of Habitat (22)
The Top Ten Issues - Women It is interesting that water control is the top issue for women, whereas it is a distant second for men. I also find it fascinating that only women had a clean energy issue in the top ten, with coal vs. renewables as number six. Indeed, the only other time an energy issue cracked a top list was where the Ontarioans mentioned nuclear energy.
1. Water Control (111) 2. Invasive Species (89) 3. Climate Change (67) 4. Addressing Historical Pollution (59) 5. Loss of Habitat (55) 6. Coal vs. Renewable Energy (30) 7. International/Regional Thinking (24) 8. Sewage in Storm Water Runoff (23) 9. Algae, Muck, etc. (19) 10. Bio-accumulative Toxins (19)
Issues Under the Radar A number of issues did not reach the lists above, or did so in only limited instances. I provide some details below. First, except for general concerns over climate change, there were very few responses relating to energy issues specifically. For example, only the three Canadian respondents listed nuclear energy as an issue, and very few people listed the issue(s) of whether to invest in coal plants, wind farms, biofuel facilities, etc.
Industrial pollution was also largely absent, aside from listing clean air or clean water in general as a top issue. Very few people identified -- for example -- steel plants, refineries, paper plants, or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) as top issues by themselves. This may have been a result of the structure of the survey, or it may also reflect the view (at least with the first three examples above), that point source pollution has become less of an issue than it has been historically.
On a similar note, non-point source pollution did not show up often, or it showed up under many different labels, including runoff in general; runoff from urban development; runoff from farms; phosphorous loads; or more. On the other hand, the listing of algae or muck may be linked to these issues (but that connection was not explicit in the survey responses). And here’s a list of other issues that came up, but could not crack many top lists (somewhat to my surprise): endangered species/loss of species; transit; sustainable trade/shipping; and a decline in government funding and/or enforcement and/or legitimacy (yes, a number of people cited corrupt politicians or executives as a top issue).
Comments or Questions If you have any comments or questions regarding this report or the survey, please comment below in the forum or send an email to dwendt@greatlakescountry.com. In particular, I could provide details on what responses were rolled into each category used in this report, but I am not going to do that unless a number of people request it.
