Prosperity and environmental challenge in a gaming city: environmental awareness of citizens in the Macao Special Administrative Region, China

This paper discusses the major environmental challenges caused by the post-handover development in Macao, a gaming-dominant city in southern China. Based on data collected in an Environmental Awareness Survey in 2011, the paper examines the city's emerging challenges in environmental issues. The survey reveals that most Macao citizens are aware of, and concerned about, the environmental problems of the city and the neighbouring region. They are pessimistic about the environmental quality of the city. Citizens hold firm materialist values, and demonstrate differential environmental awareness for different development projects. They hold conflicting views, however, about who should be responsible for protecting the environment. For instance, although most citizens claim that they are willing to pay, or even to change their lifestyle to protect the environment, they blame the government for many of the environmental flaws. Results show that Macao has to determine how to transform itself from a materialist posture to a post-materialist one.