Global warming, climate change: Less than a third of Americans are worried, Gallup says

Less than a third of Americans are now concerned about global warming and climate change: 32 percent fret about those environmental factors says the annual Gallup Environmental survey, released Wednesday. Naturally, there’s a partisan divide: 13 percent of Republicans are concerned about global warming and climate problems, compared to 52 percent of Democrats.

The majority of Americans worry about only one environmental issue, however. Fifty five percent are concerned about the pollution of drinking water. Next in line: 47 percent fret over lake and river pollution, air pollution (36 percent) and the loss of tropical rain forests (33 percent).

In general, Americans are more positive about the environment these days notes Gallup analyst Jeffrey Jones, with negative sentiments now at the “low end” of what the polling group has measured in the last 25 years.

“The nature of the environmental agenda may indirectly be influencing Americans’ concern. The primary focus of the environmental movement has shifted toward long-term threats like global warming - issues about which Americans tend to worry less than about more immediate threats like pollution,” writes Mr. Jones.

“Importantly, 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.”