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Gallup's 2001 Earth Day Report

Environmentalism Among Americans This Earth Day
Sunday, April 22 marks the 31st anniversary of the first Earth Day, and Gallup's recent annual update of environmental attitudes shows that most Americans are sympathetic toward the environmental movement, but are not so concerned at this time that they support drastic action to forestall potential environmental problems.

A variety of results from Gallup's Earth Day poll, conducted March 5-7 with 1,060 national adults, suggest that only a quarter or so of Americans are highly troubled about environmental conditions -- for instance, saying that environmental problems are so great that they require "immediate and drastic" action. About half that number could be described as complacent, while the remaining majority is concerned about the environment, but only moderately so.

Still, a majority of Americans, 57%, side with environmentalism in situations where environmental and economic needs conflict -- a tradeoff at the heart of some recent Bush administration policy decisions. (However, in today's climate of economic uncertainty, this percentage is down 10 points from last year.) And, on specific issues -- such as regulating industrial emissions, drilling in the Alaskan wilderness, and the Kyoto global warming treaty -- Americans favor the more environmentally friendly options, putting them in opposition to the administration's positions on each of these issues.

More information on these findings is here.

Are Bush's Anti-Environmental Initiatives Hurting His Ratings?
From reversing new standards on arsenic in drinking water to abandoning the Kyoto global warming treaty, the Bush administration has announced a series of policies over the past month that have environmentalists seeing red -- and Democrats seeing a political opportunity. Gallup polls indicate that Americans are at odds with many of these policies. Still, as of the first week in April, the public has not markedly changed its generally positive ratings of George W. Bush on the environment.

More information on these findings is here.

Americans Consider Global Warming Real, but Not Alarming
The hottest question in the global warming debate is whether human activities are responsible for the rise in the Earth's temperature. By a nearly two-to-one margin, Gallup finds that Americans believe humans are responsible. Americans also think the effects of global warming are likely to occur in their lifetime. At the same time, relatively few Americans are very concerned about the problem, with only 33% saying they worry about it "a great deal" (among the lowest of Americans' environmental concerns) and just 31% feeling it poses a serious risk in their lifetime.

More information on these findings is here.

The British Out-Worry Americans on Environmental Issues
If Americans are concerned about the state of their nation's environment, then the British are downright gloomy about it. Three-quarters of adults living in the United Kingdom describe environmental conditions there as only fair or poor, compared to 53% of Americans who feel that way about the United States. The British are also much more likely than Americans to say that environmental interests should supersede economic and energy needs. And while only a third of Americans support caps on the amount of energy that average consumers can use, a majority of the British support this idea.


Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/9973/Gallups-2001-Earth-Day-Report.aspx
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