April 14 (UPI) — Americans’ opinions on the health of the environment are at a record low, with 35% expressing a positive view of the environment’s quality, a Gallup poll released Tuesday shows.
Two-thirds say the environment is getting worse.
The poll also showed that about 63% of U.S. adults say the government isn’t doing enough to protect the environment. This marks a 6% increase and the highest percentage recorded since Gallup first asked the question in 1992. About 58% said protecting the environment should be a priority over economic growth, and about 57% said it should be a priority over developing U.S. energy sources.
However, about 27% say the government is doing the right amount to protect the environment. About 7% say it’s doing too much. The poll found marked partisan differences to views on the environment, a continuing trend.
An overall positive rating on environmental quality was down 8 percentage points since last year. This marked the lowest level in the question’s 25-year history. Six percent of Americans rated the environment as “excellent,” while 29% rated it as “good.” This compares to a previous combined low of 39% in 2009 and 2022 and a high of 50% in 2015.
Meanwhile, 43% rated environmental quality as “fair,” and 20% rated it as “poor.”
Gallup said the fall in the positive rating came mostly from independents (34% positive, a 10-point drop), while Republican ratings stayed about the same at 63% positive. The positive rating by Democrats was 16%, another record low.
The division continued in questions about the government’s performance on the environment. Democrats were more likely to say the government is doing too little. The 91% of Democrats who held that opinion in this poll matched the percentage from last year, which marked an all-time high. Meanwhile, 23% of Republicans held that opinion in this year’s poll, close to last year’s 22%, a record low.
The poll rated worries about eight environmental problems, of which the pollution of drinking water and the maintenance of the U.S. supply of fresh water for households worried people the most, with more than half overall expressing “a great deal” of worry about these issues.
Other issues included pollution of lakes, rivers, and reservoirs (50% worry about a great deal); the environmental impact of artificial intelligence data centers (46%); global warming or climate change (44%); the loss of tropical rain forests (41%); air pollution (40%); and extinction of plant and animal species (37%). In all categories, a majority said they worry at least “a fair amount” about the issue.
Again, this is markedly different along partisan lines. A majority of Democrats showed a great deal of worry about each issue (excepting 50% for extinction), but Republicans showing this amount of concern ranged from 6% on global warming or climate change to 38% for pollution of drinking water. Overall, independents stay about the national average.
Gallup surveyed 1,000 adults between March 2-18 with a 4 percent margin of error.
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