Americans' worries about the environment — from air and water pollution to the extinction of plant and animal species — have eased over the past year, with global warming the least of their concerns, a new poll finds.
The Gallup environmental survey, released Wednesday, shows polluted water topped the list of concerns both in 2014 and this year, followed by pollution of rivers, lakes and reservoirs, air pollution, extinction of species and the loss of tropical rain forests.
At the bottom of the list, both last year and now, is global warming or climate change.
"Even as global warming has received greater attention as an environmental problem from politicians and the media in recent years, Americans' worry about it is no higher now than when Gallup first asked about it in 1989," the pollster noted.
According to the survey:
- 60 percent of Americans worried "a great deal" in 2014 about drinking water pollution; 55 percent thought so in 2015
- 53 percent worried about rivers, lakes and reservoirs being polluted last year; the level is 47 percent in 2015.
- 46 percent were worried about air pollution last year; 38 percent are this year.
- Species extinction and the loss of rain forests each worried 41 percent of Americans last year; this year, 36 percent are worried about extinction, and 33 percent about rain forests.
- 34 percent of Americans worried about global warming in 2014; 32 percent are concerned this year.
"[T]he nature of the environmental agenda may indirectly be influencing Americans' concern," the pollster said, noting, "Democrats worry more than Republicans about all of the issues."
"Notably, Democrats are more worried about global warming now than they were in 2000, perhaps reflecting the shift in the focus of the environmental agenda toward this issue," the surveyor said.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.