I would add to the previous post (based on what I got back from the Texas Methodists) that environmental activity seems to be strongly related to either A) ease of carrying it out, or B) poorly defined concerns about the environment.
In other words, in the case of A, alot of people said they recycle all the time (this is because most communities in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area either make bins available without making customers pick them up or because having a bin is mandatory). In the case of B, the people I talked to knew that recycling, installing CFLs and weatherstripping was a good thing (in a very vague sense) but didn't have much information on how or why other activities might help. For example, when I gave my talk (after getting the surveys back), most people didn't realize that eating meat posed an environmental problem beyond a potential animal rights issue--same with letting housecats run free, etc. The trend in this particular church was a very genuine feeling of wanting to do something, but a lack of tools and knowledge for doing it.
In other words, this particular group had the impression that God wanted them to care about the environment and to take action to that effect but didn't know precisely what that meant, or how to turn that sentiment into action. There was also a sense that individual action was pretty paltry in the face of corporate and governmental inertia. A woman asked me what could be done about that and all I could tell her was that she should vote for environmentally conscientious candidates and make an attempt to vote with her dollars by investing in companies with good track records and buying green products.
CB
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