Gauging trends in public interest in conservation issues in Texas and adjacent states: An exploratory analysis using Google Trends data

• In Event: Poster Presentation and Judging for: Anthropology; Botany; Conservation Ecology; Environmental Science; Freshwater Science; Geosciences; Mathematics & Computer Science; Neuroscience; Physics & Eng; Science Education; Terrestrial Ecology & Management.
  In Poster Session: Conservation Ecology Poster Session

Abstract

An understanding of historic and current levels of interest by the public related to conservation issues is informative and relevant to a number of stakeholders, including governmental policy planners, scientists, and non-profit NGOs. Google Trends, with its global database of Internet search string history, represents a vast and potentially minable source of data to characterize relative levels of interest in conservation topics through time, and is increasingly being employed for such research. This study analyzes regional Google search string data from Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma to characterize public levels of interest and trends in conservation topics based on a number of specific conservation-related words or phrases. Preliminary results for Texas indicate a declining level of interest in topics such as endangered species and Texas Horned Lizard, with an upward trend in the level of public interest over the last decade regarding the topic of biodiversity. Limitations and future prospects of this new methodology—sometimes called conservation culturomics—will also be considered in terms of how it may help in understanding human-nature relationships and in advancing conservation science.

Author

• Rick L Hammer, Hardin-Simmons University