Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Americans fear for planet's well-being

A poll finds the public is disappointed with the government's environmental efforts.

WASHINGTON - People want their leaders to move boldly to help the environment but give them dismal grades for their actions so far, according to a poll released Wednesday that highlighted rampant pessimism on the issue.

Only about one in five voiced approval of how President Bush, Congress and U.S. businesses have been handling the environment. And while decisive majorities said they want strong public and private action, fewer than one in 10 said they had seen such steps in the past year, according to the poll by the Associated Press and Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment.

The survey, conducted days before Bush was convening an international climate conference in Washington, showed that though Democrats and independents were consistently more critical than Republicans, anxiety is widespread over the environment and global warming.

Only about a fifth think the environment is in good or excellent shape, including 39 percent of Republicans. Just more than one in 10 think it is faring better than a decade ago or will improve a decade from now, while about eight in 10 say global warming is under way - views that were broadly shared across party lines.

The 84 percent who believe world temperatures are rising is virtually unchanged since Stanford and ABC News conducted a similar poll in March 2006. But while 45 percent of that group said in 2006 they were very or extremely sure, 61 percent said so in this month's survey - including most Democrats and independents and 39 percent of Republicans.

On the other hand, of the 14 percent who said global temperatures are probably not rising, nearly half say they are very or extremely sure - up from the roughly one-third who felt that strongly last year.

"I don't understand how they can say there is global warming or man causes it when it's a natural cycle of the planet," said Russell Marshall, 34, a student from Enid, Okla., and a Republican. "It's like the planet cleanses itself from time to time by changing temperature."

In some of the starkest partisan differences, Democrats and independents strongly disapprove of Bush's performance on the environment, while Republicans approve by 50 percent to 18 percent. Republicans were also likelier to think Bush and business have caused little harm.

Yet even among the GOP and conservatives, those saying they want Bush, Congress, business or the public to take strong action far outweighed those who said they prefer that little or nothing be done. Nearly six in 10 Republicans said there would be serious problems if global warming is not addressed, and more of them said the environment is worse than a decade ago - and will be even worse 10 years from now - than saw improvements.

But this year's poll showed slightly smaller numbers of people favoring strong action on the environment than last year, especially among Republicans.

The poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,001 adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

LAST FACTS

Nations want to fight poverty first

WASHINGTON - A day before President Bush's climate talks, China and other developing nations said Wednesday the need to provide food, shelter and clothes for their citizens must come ahead of global warming concerns.

"For a developing country, the main task is to reduce poverty," Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's national development and reform commission, told a forum sponsored by the Center for Clean Air Policy, a think tank.

The countries expressed a strong preference for the climate negotiations later this year sponsored by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, instead of Bush's meeting today and Friday for 16 "major emitter" countries, including China and India.

[Last modified September 27, 2007, 00:25:59]