The judged seriousness of an environmental loss is a matter of what caused it

Environmental losses, each described along with its cause, were judged for seriousness. Four types of cause were studied: illegal behavior, carelessness, economic and population growth, and natural events. Identical environmental losses (e.g., of a herd of elk or a large stand of trees) were considered most serious when caused by illegal behavior or carelessness, and only slightly less serious when caused by growth. Losses due to these three types of human causes were considered much more serious than when the same losses were caused by natural events. Naturally caused environmental losses were probably considered least serious because they do not provoke the sense of violation or responsibility commonly associated with human-caused losses, and because naturally caused losses are often considered unavoidable and in the natural scheme of things.