Pelkkää kiveä? : uraanikaivostoiminnan kannatuksen ja vastustuksen sosiodemografinen ja moraalitaloudellinen määräytyminen Pohjois-Karjalassa, Kainuussa ja Lapissa

Abstract

In this study, by using a survey conducted in 2012, the attitudes the residents of three Finnish regions (North Karelia, Kainuu and Lapland) have toward uranium mining are explored. Main interests are how sociodemographic factors predict these attitudes and whether the perceptions of the acceptance of uranium mining are embedded in certain moral-political views. With the examination being on the regional level, the attitudes toward uranium mining aren’t as negative as one could conclude from the at times heated public discussion. In the regions studied, there are almost equal amount of those who support uranium mining and those who oppose it. There is a juxtaposition between potential negative local impacts on water quality and positive impacts on especially employment. The perceptions on the local impacts are diversely reflexive in the sense that even though the potential negative local impacts of uranium mining on the environment are recognized, it is also acknowledged that uranium mining can have many positive local impacts on the employment, services and municipality’s economy. Only few sociodemographic factors predict attitudes toward uranium mining. The strongest sociodemographic predictors are typically gender and political view. The oppositional and supportive group differ most in their views on the safety of uranium mining and in their nuclear energy orientation. The supporters of urani-um mining consider it to be safe and its risks manageable in Finland. They also have a positive attitude toward nuclear energy. In the opposing group these issues are seen in an opposite manner. The second greatest differences are found in the views toward uranium mining’s environmental and health risks, the economic necessity of mining in general and in trust toward the national regulation of mining. In the opposing group uranium mining’s environmental and health risks are seen as more remarkable, mining less economically necessary and national regulation of mining as less trustworthy than supporters. Different world-view orientations and moral-political perceptions such as political view and attitude toward the use of nuclear power are essential dividing factors in the attitude toward uranium mining indicating that citizens’ attitudes toward uranium mining have not just local, but also broader societal links.