Environmental Issues Slide in Poll of Public’s Concerns

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/science/earth/23warm.html

Environmental Issues Slide in Poll of Public’s Concerns

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: January 22, 2009

A new poll suggests that Americans, preoccupied with the economy, are less worried about rising global temperatures than they were a year ago but remain concerned with solving the nation’s energy problems.

The findings are somewhat at odds with President Obama, who has put a high priority on staving off global warming and vowed Tuesday in his Inaugural Address to “roll back the specter of a warming planet.”

In the poll, released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, global warming came in last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists. Only 30 percent of the voters deemed global warming to be “a top priority,” compared with 35 percent in 2008.

“Protecting the environment,” which had surged in the rankings from 2006 to 2008, dropped even more precipitously in the poll: only 41 percent of voters called it a top priority, compared with 56 percent last year.

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OK, I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm still disappointed. :(

[kristopher]

1. It couldn't come at a better time.

The key is that the best solutions to all three problems - economy, energy, environment - are the same.

[NOW tense]

2. I agree

[Libertyfirst]

3. I think you all are correct about the interrelatedness of these problems. But folks

who aren't aware of the extent to which this is so always concern about the environment in tough economic times.