Missourians Who Worry "A Fair Amount" and "A Great Deal" About Selected Conservation Issues

When asked about a variety of conservation issues, the pollution of drinking water had the highest level of personal worry by Missourians when the responses of "a fair amount" and "a great deal" are added together.

This "top two" approach provides an indication of the more strongly held opinions of Missourians about the selected conservation issues in this question.

Almost 80 percent or more of Missourians worry about drinking water pollution, pollution of rivers, streams, and lakes, and air pollution. A clear majority of Missourians worry about the loss of natural habitat for wildlife and not enough regulation for housing, business, or shopping developments. About one-half of Missourians worry about urban sprawl and a significant number of Missourians worry about channelized or altered streams.

The strongest held opinions, those that worry "a great deal," increase as the overall level of worry increases (the green shaded areas on the right in the chart) for the conservation issues in the list. For each issue, the number of Missourians that worry "a fair amount" (the areas shaded yellow on the left) is about the same.

In this chart, the overall ranking stays the same compared to the rankings obtained if only the levels of "a great deal" are compared in a chart or if the levels of all Missourians who had any inclination to worry about the issues are compared. Although I would be comfortable reporting any of the three ranking charts, the "top two" approach in the chart here provides a very clear perspective about what a majority of Missourians feel about the selected conservation issues.

Even a quick inspection of the chart indicates that the top four issues have the highest levels of worry by Missourians, including the issues of drinking water pollution, pollution of rivers, streams, and lakes, air pollution, and the loss of natural habitat for wildlife.

These results for how Missourians personally worry about conservation issues are from a conservation opinion survey conducted for the Missouri Department of Conservation by the University of Missouri in 2003. The survey was conducted by mail and a statistically valid random sample of Missouri adults from every Zip Code in Missouri were asked to provide their opinions. A total of 6,352 Missourians provided completed survey forms.