Environmental questions - knowledge, preoccupations, and feelings

Abstract

In Portugal, compared with other European countries, environmental questions appeared late. Nevertheless, in recent years there has been a growing recognition of environmental problems; awareness of these has grown, and they have become preoccupations of politicians, of the media, and of citizens in general. At present, The Health of the Planet Survey ( 1992) is the best available data base for evaluating the perceptions that the Portuguese have of environmental issues. This article works with some of the results of this enquiry, and produces a preliminary approach to Portuguese public opinion on environmental problems: the distance that the Portuguese feel away from global problems, the lack of knowledge about the environment that they show, and the attitudes, militancy, and concrete actions aimed at environmental protection.