| Abstract |
In the assessment of potential environmental impacts of technological change, it is increasingly important to assess public attitude about such change. Typically, public attitude surveys use questions directed toward a specific issue. As part of the engineering and economic assessment of potential utilization of geothermal energy of non electric applications in the City of Desert Hot Springs, California an attempt was made to assess basic attitudes and values toward the environment as an indication of community acceptance of increase duse of the resource.This was accomplished using the Environmental Response Inventory (ERI), an attitudinal assessment inventory, in conjunction with an item specific attitude survey. The results indicated that both city officials and the general public fundamentally endorse technological development. This paper presents the results of the ERI in the City of Desert Hot Springs, and assesses the implications of its use in evaluating implentation of energy technology. |