Health versus environment.

A healthy body trumps a healthy environment

All respondents Average (Mean) Exercise/health 53%

activities Healthy foods 47% } 44% Whole grains 31% Eco-friendly "green" 25%

products Eco-friendly "green" 22% } 22%

packages Local foods 19% The environment is getting lots of attention, but hopes for doing more about health trump hopes for doing something about the environment. "Green" and education Eco-friendly action hopes H.S. or Less Some College Some College Eco-friendly 18% 27% 27%

(green) products Eco-friendly 15% 24% 24%

(green) packages Local foods 16% 19% 19% Tap water 19% 20% 20% Average Mean) 17% 22.5% 22.5% Bottled water 35% 31% 31% Hopes to buy more eco-friendly products and packages increase with education, as do hopes of buying more local food. Increasing tap water consumption seems unrelated to education, but fewer people with college educations hope to increase their use of bottled water.

It's not shown in these tables, but males and females are roughly equal in their hopes to do more eco-friendly consuming in 2008. In prior years, more women were concerned about the environment. This year, a female member of our panel said: "I can't reduce my own weight by even a pound, so how can I hope to reduce my carbon footprint on the planet?"