PROSPECTUS - The Pew Charitable Trusts

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38 The Pew-supported Heritage Forest Campaign and its allies continue to thwart efforts to undo the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, the landmark measure that protects almost 60 million of the country’s undeveloped national forestland. In Idaho, where new rulemaking threatens to reduce safeguards for its nine million acres of backcountry forests, Pew and its allies succeed in keeping the state’s roadless areas largely off limits to roadbuilding and other industrial development. In Colorado, Pew persuades the governor to seek additional time from the U.S. Forest Service in order to preserve 4.4 million acres of the state’s best backcountry. The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production issues a comprehensive report examining the impact of industrial farm animal production on public health, the environment, farm communities and animal welfare. California voters pass Proposition 2, which prohibits farmers from confining veal calves, egg-laying hens and pregnant sows in cages and crates. The measure is strongly supported by the commission, which opposes such practices as not only inhumane, but also a danger to public health because they require the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics, which is a direct contributor to growing antibiotic resistance. The House Natural Resources Committee passes an emergency resolution to require the U.S. Secretary of Interior to withdraw approximately one million acres of federal lands around the Grand Canyon from new mining claims. The vote is a victory for the Pew Campaign for Responsible Mining and its allies, which seek to reform the antiquated 1872 law that gives hardrock mining priority on most public lands in the West. Information Initiatives In its final pre-election poll, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press accurately predicts the outcome of the 2008 presidential race down to the percentage point —52 percent for Barack Obama and 46 percent for John McCain. Remarkably, this is the second presidential election in which the Pew Research Center has predicted the winner’s precise margin: Its 2004 survey that showed George Bush defeating John Kerry at 51 to 48 percent was also an exact estimation of the result. That precision draws praise from many national print and broadcast media outlets, with one National Public Radio commentator calling the center’s polling “gold-plated.” The Campaign Coverage Index, released each week by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, monitors media reporting on the closely watched presidential race. Paired with the News Interest Index by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which analyzes the public’s response to these stories, it shows the interplay between news coverage and the public’s perceptions of the race. The two indexes agree that candidate Barack Obama receives far more coverage, as well as more favorable coverage, than does opponent John McCain. The News Interest Index also finds that the public follows news about the 2008 presidential campaign more closely than any presidential election in the past 20 years. Americans rely primarily on television news for information
Pew Prospectus 2009 milestones 2008 39 about the campaign, and cable TV is the dominant medium. The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveys 24,000 people in 24 countries and reports that not only are people around the world following the U.S. presidential election closely but, except in countries with an extreme anti-American bias, public opinion is generally optimistic about the direction U.S. foreign policy will take under a new president. A separate study finds rising anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish feelings in several major European countries. The Pew Hispanic Center projects that, if current trends continue, the U.S. population will grow to 438 million in 2050, with most of that increase due to immigrants arriving between 2005 and 2050 and their U.S.-born descendants. The center reports that Latinos have accounted for more than half of the overall population growth in the United States in this decade, and it provides details through interactive online maps and databases for all 50 states and their 3,141 counties. Another study finds that, for the first time in a decade, the inflow of immigrants who are undocumented has now fallen below that of immigrants who are legal permanent residents. Stepped-up law enforcement and the worsening economy are both seen as playing roles. The Pew Internet & American Life Project conducts the first nationally representative study of teens and video gaming and the role of teen videogame play in civic engagement. Research shows that video games are ubiquitous in the lives of American teens and—contrary to popular belief—offer a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement. Another study reports that nearly half of technology users need help from others in getting new devices and services to work, and many encounter electronic breakdowns from time to time, with home Internet connections being the most problematic. The Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends project issues several reports monitoring the pulse of the American public. One study finds that fewer middle-class Americans now than at any time in the past half-century believe they are moving forward in life. Another survey, conducted prior to the election, reports that Republicans are consistently happier than Democrats—a trend unchanged since the question was first asked in 1972, although the current gap is among the largest on record. Another study examines the role that gender plays in decisionmaking and finds that women are the bosses when it comes to four major activities in the typical American home: weekend-activities planning, household finances, major home purchases and TV watching. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, polling 35,000 Americans for its U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, finds that worship is strong in this country, with more than half of those surveyed saying that they attend services regularly and pray daily. At the same time, religious affiliation is extremely fluid— more than one in four American adults no longer observe the faith in which they were raised—and tolerance of diversity is high: The majority of those who are affiliated with a religion do not believe that theirs is the only way to salvation. In addition to conduct-
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