| Abstract: | In addition to large, rural, pristine natural areas, urban open space is increasingly viewed as harboring small pockets of indigenous flora and fauna that need to be protected. We examined the consistency of attitudes toward protecting the natural environment among tropical rainforests, regional natural areas of the midwestern United States, and local open space within the Chicago metropolitan region. We also examined the moderating effects of issue importance, environmental ideology, and objective knowledge on attitude consistency. When environmental protection was rated as important, attitudes toward protecting tropical rainforests, regional forests, and local open space were more consistent with each other than when the issue was unimportant. Persons with distinct environmental ideologies differed in the extent to which their attitudes toward environmental protection at the three geographic levels were consistent. |
